In March 2024, the project "Mental Health Support Program for Medical Staff of Ukrainian Hospitals" was launched. It involves medical teams from three hospitals in Ukraine: the Regional Clinical Center of Neurosurgery and Neurology, the Regional Children’s Hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk, and the City Children’s Hospital in Kharkiv. The project will last for 6 months and is being implemented by the NGO "Vigorous Moment" in cooperation with the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya and with the financial support of the Fondation de France.

"The idea of psychological support for doctors was inspired by my own experience. For the last 7-8 years, I have been working in the field of psycho-oncology in children’s hospitals. The specificity of the work of a pediatric clinical psychologist is that it is impossible to be a support exclusively for children or their families. One way or another, this applies to everyone involved in the treatment process. Teamwork is very important. Only systematic interaction with hospitals can improve the psychological state of both patients and staff. We look at a hospital as a complex organism", said project manager Lyudmyla Baletska.

While implementing various projects at the national and international levels, Lyudmyla and her team found that hospitals need to implement a systemic psychological culture where patients and the medical team need support and, therefore, self-care. The coronavirus pandemic, the war – in recent years, healthcare workers have had to overcome an intense stressful path. The hospitals in different parts of the country were not chosen by chance, because, according to the project manager, different cities face different challenges in the medical system: everyday life is different in Kharkiv and Uzhhorod, but at the same time, the specialization and workload of hospitals, the profile of medical institutions, fatigue, burnout, and, ultimately, the war itself are powerful stressors for the entire medical team. That is why it is important to create specialized mental support programs for doctors and patients across the country, regardless of their place of work.

The project manager and psychologist Nataliya Felbaba was also involved in the selection of specialists.

"We were looking for specialists with experience, because doctors are usually cautious about psychological support and counseling. Due to their excessive workload, they rarely find time for this, so they notice the problem only when they reach the point of burnout. And this point is already critical, because according to the first reactions, we see that hospitals are very happy about this project. Among other things, they noted that everyone was very tired, and they were very pleased that someone would take care of them and that there were individual consultations with psychologists. The hospital management, realizing that the staff barely has time to rest between shifts, taking in the flow of adults and children, was also very interested in the project, in particular the coaching sessions, because running a hospital in times of war is a real challenge. I am very much in favor of this project, because I see with my own eyes how difficult it is for doctors now", Nataliya said.

Yaroslav Semkovych, Medical Director of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Children’s Hospital, shared his thoughts and expectations from participating in the project.

"Due to the full-scale war, the flow of inpatients at our hospital increased by more than one and a half times, and outpatients almost doubled. Critical specialties such as surgeons, anesthesiologists, and intensive care specialists have a pronounced rapid burnout syndrome due to working with extremely difficult patients, emotional exhaustion, and work schedules even in normal civilian conditions in peaceful countries. And now imagine how much burnout our doctors experience when they work in extremely difficult conditions with a huge number of people during air raids, when patients need to be transferred under ventilators to evacuation rooms, basements, and protective structures. The emotional level of doctors is at the peak of their burnout. And I believe that it is extremely important to support not only doctors but also nurses, because we work as a team. Unfortunately, every day in my work I encounter the syndrome of aggression from medical workers. Despite the fact that the institution where I work tries its best to be loyal to the staff, to provide absolutely everything, the emotional exhaustion of the employees is evident. So I would be happy to take part in the coaching sessions", commented Yaroslav Semkovych.

The project "Mental Health Support Program for Medical Staff of Ukrainian Hospitals" should become a starting point for hospitals, from which the management will build on and independently raise funds to support their staff.

As a reminder, in December 2023, the project "Providing Psychosocial Support to the Population of Zakarpattia Oblast in War Conditions", which is being implemented by the NGO "Vigorous Moment" in cooperation with the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya and with the financial support of the Fondation de France, was launched. The aim of the project is to provide psychological assistance to people living in the Zakarpattia region.