The war in Ukraine has severely affected primary health care in the country. Due to uncertainty in crisis situations and worries about family, mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorders, depression and psychosis, are on the rise. The need for mental health, emergency care, and trauma support in Ukraine is therefore enormous. To improve psychosocial support for people, a network of 34 clinics in Ukraine and Germany was launched last spring under the name Solomiya (Ukrainian for peace). The network brings clinics in Germany and Ukraine together in partnership. The Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) is also part of the network, which is coordinated by Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Training specialist staff
In the wake of Solomiya, the CIMH has begun facilitating mental health first-aid courses in Ukraine. The aim is to strengthen the skills of professional staff in dealing with people in crisis situations, including people with mental health problems. Participants include, for example, family doctors, rescue workers, volunteers and public service employees. They are taught knowledge about mental illness in several course units and practice dealing with affected people in role plays. The plan is to extend the reach of these online workshops through the “train-the-trainer” principle. This will enable doctors and psychologists in Ukraine to offer mental health first-aid courses themselves. “We help people affected by war and escape to process and cope with the situation more easily,” says Katheryna Guzenko, PhD, a psychiatrist from Ukraine who runs the online courses for professionals.
The goal of the Solomiya Network is to strengthen the areas of mental health, emergency care and trauma care, as well as to support them with much-needed medication. The entire project is funded with 6.2 million euros by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The network is coordinated by Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Medical supplies delivered
In about a year, the network has delivered medicines and medical supplies, serving more than 20,000 patients since May 2022. Online workshops and apps have been used to share knowledge with colleagues on psychological first aid, staff mentoring, burnout prevention, resilience training for health workers, and maternal mental health. In addition, an online consultation hour was established and digital infrastructure was created; this includes the chatbot “Friend”, which has been able to support more than 100,000 users to date. In addition, the team is developing specific training for managers in the Ukrainian healthcare sector and apps for patients with chronic stress and sleep disorders.
The CIMH will also be represented at the first Healthcare Partnership Conference Ukraine/Germany, which will take place in Berlin on July 4, 2023. Dr. Alexander Moldavski, physician and researcher at CIMH, will discuss mental health and trauma, among other topics, on the panel.
About Solomiya
Solomiya is a large, German-Ukrainian network that initially started as a partnership between Charité, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, Bogomolets National Medical University, Kharkiv National Medical University, the Institute of Mental Health of the Catholic University of Lviv, and the Ukrainian Institute of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Lviv. The network is continuously and comprehensively evolving based on current needs in Ukraine. The clinic partners collaborate in the areas of mental health, traumatology and emergency medicine. They are building a dynamic and needs-based platform that benefits both patients and health professionals. Currently, the following clinics are involved on the German side, in addition to the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim: the Charité (coordination), the BG Clinics and the Ludwig Maximillians University of Munich. The University of St. Gallen is also involved in the network.