Mykola OVCHARENKO

[ region ]

Luhansk

Head of the Mental Health Center in the Luhansk Region, Rubizhne

Socio-economic factors and the ongoing war, coupled with an outdated mental healthcare system result in a high prevalence and poor treatment of mental health disorders.

Swiss support is focusing on strengthening mental health services provision for the most vulnerable war affected population – IDP's, aging population, families with children, people with disabilities, former fighters and their families.

Back in 2014, we had to leave Luhansk and to rebuild everything in Rubizhne. It was up to only a handful of us when we started to build this mental health center from scratch. In 2014, thousands of former fighters came back from the conflict zone. A lot of them had health problems, like hypertension, diabetes, and mental health conditions were among them: depression, various addictions, etc. Yet 90% of them did not dare to talk about their problems to doctors.

Our mission is to bring all of our patients back to a full-fledged active life.

Mykola OVCHARENKO

They believed rather in the comradery with their brothers in arms. But we gained their trust, step by step. Trust is the best medicine. I have to say that we have also changed. We learned a lot from our partners over the past few years. For example, during our study tour to Switzerland, I reconsidered my views on the medication-free treatments, in particular with regard to group therapies. More globally speaking, it is the approach to mental health care, which has also changed. In the past, it was about keeping control over pathologies, in order to keep people with mental disorders away from the society. Nowadays our mission is to bring all our patients back to a full-fledged active life.

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