In this episode of Smart in the City – The BABLE Podcast, we head to Kyiv, Ukraine, to explore Mental Guard, a city-level mental health initiative embedded within the public education system.
We are joined by Kateryna Mohylnytska, Head of the Mental Health Project and Chief Communications Officer of the Kyiv Digital Agency, Ukraine.

Kateryna explains how Mental Guard moves schools from reaction to prevention, noticing early signals before they become a crisis. She walks us through its three pillars: early wellbeing assessment, rapid human response, and coordination through trusted digital tools. The conversation looks closely at how the city safeguards sensitive data, designs for trust, and co-creates with children, teachers, and psychologists.

We also discuss what success looks like beyond numbers, the challenge of scaling without losing humanity, and practical advice for cities and companies that want to build similar support systems.

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Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Intro
• (00:02:26) - Teaser question: Could you describe Mental Guard with only three emojis?
• (00:03:22) - Guest background
• (00:05:28) - Pressures in Kyiv Schools
• (00:07:40) - The Mental Health Gap
• (00:09:16) - What is Mental Guard?
• (00:11:00) - City-Level Infrastructure
• (00:12:26) - Digital Trust and Communication
• (00:14:40) - Privacy and Safeguarding
• (00:16:51) - Prevention and Early Detection
• (00:19:25) - Measuring Success
• (00:21:33) - Advice for Other Cities
• (00:23:23) - Scaling the Initiative
• (00:25:48) - Collaborating with Companies
• (00:28:11) - Open Floor
• (00:29:41) - Segment: Inspire us
• (00:31:02) - Ending question: “To you, what is a Smart City?”