Swiss-supported initiative that brings medical and social care closer to patients and caregivers in Ukraine

 “I remember a case of a man and a woman who were looking after their daughter with a mental illness. When our crew arrived, they said, ‘You are the first people to cross the threshold of our home in a long time.’ We talked, and I asked the father how he was doing. I had never seen a man cry like that before. Finally, he said he was crying because it was the first time anyone had asked him how he was coping with everything. He was crying for the first time in his adult life. 

This is the story of Nataliia Klichuk, a social worker and a member of the Vseturbota project in the Rivne region. This is a specialized medical and social care service that helps people with chronic non-communicable diseases who are unable to leave their homes on their own. Experts from One Health, the implementer of the Vseturbota initiative, developed it with the support of the leadership team of the Act for Health project — GFA and Geneva University Hospitals. The project is financed by Switzerland.

 The uniqueness of Vseturbota also lies in the fact that the project provides care for both people with limited mobility and their caregivers. Medical and social assistance is virtually unavailable for people in remote areas. But thanks to the project, a team of social workers and nurses visits them right at their homes. The former determines the need for support, while the latter conducts an examination and provides medical recommendations. The team works closely with local authorities, geriatric and medical institutions to ensure that the assistance is truly effective.

 

“I learned about the project in May 2023. It got my attention since it was something new, a whole traveling aid team,” recalls social worker Nataliia. “Then I received training, where they taught us how to work in a team, how to talk to people, and how to find ways to support and help them. The training was good, but it was still difficult at first because every day you come to families who have suffered tragedies. I couldn’t even imagine how many people with such stories were coping with it! You must love this work and devote yourself to it. And we became better and better with each time.”

According to Nataliia, the people they contacted by phone initially did not believe that anyone wanted to help them.

 

“I called Liudmyla several times. She kept hanging up because she thought they had the wrong number — she just couldn’t imagine that a stranger would have anything to do with her, let alone offer help.” — Nataliia says.

 

Liudmyla is from a distant village named Triskyni, which is in the Sarny district, Rivne region. Her house, accessible by a dirt road, stands in a picturesque location near the river. Behind a neat fence is an oasis of flowers. There is a small swing covered with a rug that sways in the wind under the apple trees, and a little to the side is a well.

Liudmyla lives here with her husband and five children, and altogether they have seven sons and daughters. And the hostess's mother is lying on the bed in a small room.

 

“The first stroke happened when she was just standing on the street with her friend. My mother more or less recovered from it: she started talking again and was able to walk a little with a cane. But then she had a second stroke. The doctors gave her a 1% chance of survival. But she’s my mother; of course, she survived! 

After her second stroke, her mother, Halyna, cannot speak and can barely move. She has a tracheostomy — a special opening in her neck for breathing when the natural airway is obstructed. She is fed through a syringe, and her food must be of a special consistency. Liudmyla cannot leave her mother alone for long because of her condition — she could start coughing dangerously at any moment, and the tracheostomy must be constantly cleaned. She also needs diapers and a special mattress to prevent bedsores. Liudmyla gets these from Vseturbota, but that is not all that the initiative helps with.

 

“When they first called and then actually came, I just couldn’t believe it,” recalls Liudmyla. “I'm constantly with my mother, and I don’t see anyone. And then people come in and ask, ‘How are you?’ For me, it was like a voice from heaven. Someone remembered me, thought about me, and asked how I was doing and how they could help!”

After a while, Vseturbota organized a peer-to-peer meeting for caregivers with similar stories from several neighboring communities. Those who could not get there on their own were picked up. Finally, everyone gathered and began to discuss problems and possible solutions. By all accounts, it was extremely useful. Liudmyla admits it herself, “My mood completely changed! I came home feeling so energized! It turns out that psychological support is so important!”

 

Social worker Nataliia says that the importance of supporting the caregivers is often overlooked: “We have one woman who is an internally displaced person. At a meeting, she admitted that she sometimes went out to the shed and just screamed there out of despair. If her neighbors asked something, she would say that she saw a mouse and got scared. Caregivers are left alone with a multitude of problems. Here, they find people who will listen to them and try to support them. We remind caregivers that they are people too and have a right to live their own lives.”

Liudmyla agrees that now she tries to find time every day to at least go out into the yard and calmly drink tea. Previously, due to constantly caring for her mother, husband, and children, she didn’t even have time for that.

 

Over time, a real community has formed, where people support each other in chat rooms and on Zoom calls. There were other meetings as well, such as with a human rights lawyer. He taught them how to defend their rights and receive the government services to which they are entitled. For example, one woman from the newly formed community had a sister who was denied free medical treatment. She remembered the lawyer’s advice, referred to it, and the doctors immediately agreed to provide the necessary services.

 

In total, Vseturbota has already helped more than 14,700 people. The initiative is currently operating in communities in the Rivne, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, and Khmelnytskyi regions. A single team consisting of social worker Nataliia, nurse Viktoriia, and driver Mykola visits 100 families in the Rivne region every month.

Vseturbota is about bringing the necessary items, providing psychological support or nursing services, advising on how and where to seek medical or social services, or simply having a friendly chat. Switzerland has been funding the initiative for two years as part of the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Acting for Health.”

 

The organizers themselves describe the values of the project as care, dignity, support, and advocacy. Nataliia sums it up: “Overall, it's all about humanity. We are human beings — we have to help.”