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Mykola OVCHARENKO
Mykola OVCHARENKO
[ region ]
Luhansk
06 / 11 / 2020
Head of the Mental Health Center in the Luhansk Region, Rubizhne
[ topic ] Peace and Human Rights
Socio-economic factors and the ongoing war, coupled with an outdated mental healthcare system result in a high prevalence and poor treatment of mental health disorders.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.
Good Health and well-being / 3
Peace, justice and strong institutions / 16
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.
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.
Since 24th February 2022
After the beginning of the Russian aggression, the staff of our Mental Health Center was forced to evacuate from Rubizhne. Before leaving, we spent several weeks in the basement due to horrific shelling. The house we lived in was destroyed in an air bombing. Our warehouse in Severodonetsk, which was in the same building as the humanitarian aid logistics center for civilians, was also completely destroyed. War! But we managed to preserve our excellent professional team. We have now resumed our online work in Dnipro. Some of our employees relocated to other regions of Ukraine (Rivne, Vinnytsia, Lviv) and they are also active from there.

We plan to resume the full operation of our Mental Health Center in the near future, this time in Rivne. It should be noted that the need for qualified medical and psychological care for both war veterans and internally displaced persons is tremendous. Almost all people affected by the war experience some kind of mental disorder. Thanks to the Mental Health for Ukraine project, we have gained unique experience, developed the latest technological methods of treatment and rehabilitation of people with stress-related disorders, which we use in our daily medical practice. 
Good Health and well-being / 3
Peace, justice and strong institutions / 16
after
24 feb 2022
What else is Switzerland doing for Ukraine?
Switzerland has been assisting those impacted through various means – from humanitarian aid, humanitarian demining and financial support to granting protection status S to individuals from Ukraine seeking refuge. By 15 February 2024, the Swiss federal government had spent a total of around 3 billion Swiss francs to support Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland and people in Ukraine.

In 2022, Switzerland organised the first Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano and launched the political process to help Ukraine rebuild. The Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland in 2024, set up a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. In the longer term, the Federal Council aims to allocate 1.5 billion Swiss francs to support Ukraine's recovery efforts by 2028.
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