WHO and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine have signed a memorandum on cooperation to strengthen the provision of mental health services in the country. The aim is to make mental health and psychological support more accessible to people at the primary care level.
“Coming together today marks a historical moment, because there is a commitment to strengthen the provision of mental health services in Ukraine through primary health care,” said Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine, who signed the memorandum together with the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko.
“WHO’s mhGAP has been working in Ukraine since 2019, but after the Russian Federation’s invasion of the country on 24 February, the needs have increased dramatically, and we need to scale up training and services rapidly. I thank the Ministry of Health and the Office of the First Lady for prioritizing mental health, because now, more than 10 million people are in need of mental health assistance in the country. And I thank all the partners, because together we can do more,” Dr Habicht added.
The Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) is a WHO global programme that was launched in 2008 to improve access to mental health services through the involvement in service provision of non-specialist health professionals, such as family doctors and nurses. The programme is now implemented in more than 100 countries around the world, and its materials have been translated into more than 20 languages, including Ukrainian.
Through the programme, non-specialist personnel are trained on how to help people with common mental disorders including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal behaviour. As of July 2022, 655 health personnel have completed the training in Ukraine including family doctors, paediatricians, therapists, paramedics and nurses.
“Last week, the government added a new package ‘Support and treatment of adults and children with mental disorders at the primary level of medical care’ to the medical guarantee programme. This package will increase the capitation rate for family doctors who have the appropriate training, allowing them to carry out early diagnosis and provide basic psychological care to anyone who needs it,” said Minister Liashko.
“First Lady Olena Zelenska’s initiative to create the National Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Programme is aimed at ensuring that mental health services are of a high quality and accessible to everyone. The signing of the memorandum and the processes it launches are important in two aspects. The first is the possibility for a person to get help where he or she lives, in a convenient place, in an understandable environment. The second is the issue of transforming the approach of health-care workers, to advance a holistic view of physical and mental health,” explained Anna Luschai, Head of Accessibility and Mental Health at the Office of the First Lady of Ukraine.
In addition to face-to-face trainings, partners are completing the development of an online self-study course on the management of mental disorders in primary care institutions in Ukraine. The course is based on mhGAP training materials, and the launch of the first modules will take place in November.
Among the partners who confirmed their commitment to cooperation on the implementation of the mhGAP training programme in Ukraine are: the Ministry of Health; the Office of the First Lady of Ukraine; WHO; the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the International Medical Corps; Medicos del Mundo; the Mental Health for Ukraine project; Project HOPE; the project “Development of a sustainable public health system in Ukraine”; the Academy of Family Medicine of Ukraine; the nongovernmental organization “Proliska”; and the Ukrainian Public Health Foundation.