The Ministry of Health and World Health Organization will work to provide psychological assistance to Ukrainians affected by the war

The Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the World Health Organization continue to actively work on developing a program to preserve the mental health of the population and provide psychological assistance to Ukrainians who suffered from the military aggression of the Russian Federation. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Iryna Mykychak during a meeting with director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe Hans Kluge.

“We are eternally grateful to all our international friends and partners for supporting Ukraine. We worked closely with the WHO team in Ukraine long before the war, and our joint work to promote mental health is quite significant. Now, more than ever, we need to continue this cooperation, including that in the direction of strengthening the capacity of the network of psychological assistance to our citizens, training psychologists, family doctors and other specialists. After all, because of the war in Ukraine, we are all experiencing a significant collective psychological trauma, which cannot be underestimated, and which we must overcome very competently,” said Deputy Minister of health of Ukraine Iryna Mykychak. 

In addition, according to the deputy minister, WHO support in strengthening the national system of emergency medical care and professional nursing education in accordance with best practices is also a priority for us right now. 

“The Ministry of Health needs to expand cooperation with WHO in the field of transformation of the Ukrainian system of medical and social expertise based on the introduction of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The team of the Ministry of Health is firmly convinced that together we will survive and be able to meet the most important needs in healthcare,” Iryna Mykychak said.

During the meeting, the participants also discussed the importance of continuing to provide medical care to citizens during the war, in particular, timely prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and strokes remains one of the main priorities for the state. 

In particular, we are talking about continuing cooperation in developing a new Stroke Care Strategy that will meet the European Stroke Management Strategy. 

The meeting also noted the close cooperation between the Ministry of Health and WHO in the organization of medical evacuation of the injured Ukrainians from the hot spots of military operations and transporting them to leading European clinics for further specialized treatment.