In 2023, 320 thousand people took advantage of psychological support at the primary level.
About this during the forum “Ukraine. Year 2024″ said Health Minister Viktor Lyashko, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“320 thousand people in 2023 used psychological support services in the health care system,” Lyashko said.
He noted that with the outbreak of a full-scale war, family doctors in the healthcare system became the “entry point” for patients in receiving psychological services.
At the same time, within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program, primary care doctors were trained under the WHO mhGAP program.
«This is not yet psychological help, but it is a timely identification of those problems on which we can focus today in order to prevent the deterioration of mental health in the future,” the minister noted.
According to him, the next stage will be the development of mental health rooms in cluster hospitals.
“Each cluster hospital must have a psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatric department, so that people who come to the “entry point” and cannot receive a more complex level of psychological support or psychological assistance, could be redirected to mental health offices or mental health centers. We already have a separate package in the Medical Guarantee Program that pays for this service. This year we planned to create at least 30 mental health centers,” said Lyashko.
In addition, in 2024, together with the Ministry of Veterans and the Ministry of Social Policy, it is planned to create so-called psychological hubs based on a network of sanatorium and resort institutions with with an emphasis on providing assistance to military personnel, the minister added.
As reported, Ukrainians can receive psychological help at primary care in 865 medical institutions as part of the National Health Service package “Support and treatment of adults and children with mental disorders at the primary level of medical care.” .