More than 200 mental health centers to be created in Ukraine-Kuzin

In Ukraine, the introduction of mental health centers continues, which are a continuation of the national initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenskaya to support mental health. in total, 220 such centers are planned to be created.

This was stated in an interview with Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary doctor Igor Kuzin, reports UNN.

Details

Mental health centers will become structural divisions of cluster hospitals, which will provide mainly outpatient care in the field of mental health. according to Kuzin, they are aimed at solving the problems of accessibility of medical care in this area.

At the primary care level, doctors who have received appropriate training can diagnose underlying mental health problems and provide basic care. However, the outpatient part of the healthcare system now has disadvantages, because patients are often referred directly to narrow-profile or high-tech hospitals.

To improve access to health services, a model of mental health centers was developed, approved by the relevant regulations. In such centers, patients will be able to receive outpatient care, counseling, and support from multidisciplinary teams that will be able to work both on-site and in special settings.

According to the Ministry of Health, to meet the needs of the whole country, it is necessary to create at least 220 mental health centers. their number will depend on the population density in the regions, but on average, about 10 such centers are needed for each region. Their funding will be provided through a separate package of the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHS), which will start working from January 1, 2025.

As of today, 23-24 centers have already been created. These are areas that have previously started working on mental health issues and realized in advance the need to concentrate outpatient care.

The Ministry of health plans to complete the creation of a network of centers during 2025. According to Kuzin, the implementation of this initiative will allow us to fully form an outpatient link of care in the field of mental health, which will significantly improve the availability of medical services for citizens.

We hope that within the next year we will be able to complete this block concerning outpatient medical care

recall

The Verkhovna Rada supported as a basis the BillT, which in the future should oblige employers to create a mental health service.