Ukraine has made significant progress in providing psychological care through the training of more than 15,200 or 60% of family doctors, therapists and pediatricians. According to information from the press service of the Ministry of Health, more than half of them have already successfully applied the acquired skills in real practice.
"More than 15,200 primary care physicians have successfully completed training under the program 'Management of common mental disorders at the primary care level using the mhGAP guidelines.' This is more than 60% of the total number of primary care doctors, approximately 8,000 of them actively use the acquired skills in practice, providing free psychological services to patients within the framework of the Medical Guarantee Program," it is reported.
During the year, more than 85,500 patients used this service. Family doctors received 64,045 mental health referrals, therapists – 12,494, pediatricians – 9,253, other specialists received 8,194 referrals.
Minister Viktor Lyashko stated that the task of the Ministry of Health was to simplify patients' access to psychological care as much as possible, since the war had a significant impact on the mental health of Ukrainians.
"At the end of last year, we started scaling up the training of family doctors and pediatricians as part of the All-Ukrainian mental health program at the initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska. The next step will be setting up the referral system to specialists and creating mental health centers on the basis of cluster hospitals with the involvement of qualified psychologists and psychiatrists," he emphasized.
Currently, Ukrainians can receive free mental health care services from a family doctor, a therapist, and a pediatrician who work in institutions with a contract for the package "Support and treatment of adults and children with mental disorders at the primary level of medical care." This became possible after the successful training of doctors, which allows them to provide psychological first aid.
