Attachments
Executive Summary
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A recent UN survey showed that Ukrainian people believe that the most significant impact of the war was on their mental health. The impact of conflict on mental health is a widely researched phenomenon and will affect Ukrainians for decades, yet mental health does not receive the attention or resources it deserves.
This report outlines three key complexities that all organizations planning to address mental healthcare in Ukraine should consider. First, Ukraine already had one of the highest mental health burdens in the world due to historical trauma, Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine, and COVID-19. Second, the impact distribution across demography and geographies is not uniform. Third, the centralization, low funding, complex constellation of providers, low affordability, and low quality of the Ukrainian mental healthcare system, alongside stigma towards mental health and the impact of war on mental healthcare structures, drives a sizeable mental healthcare gap in the country.
Despite these complexities, Ukraine has started to build a solid base which the government, the private sector, and civil society can use to develop the current system into a high-quality mental healthcare system when the current acute humanitarian phase is over. For example, Ukraine has joined the Pan-European Mental Health Coalition, set up 126 community mental health teams with the World Health Organization (WHO), and participated in the Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) initiative to help scale the management of Common Mental Disorders in primary healthcare.
This report provides a critical foundation for Heal Trauma International's work, helping to ensure that we coordinate with other MHPSS actors in Ukraine, do no harm, target the right groups, avoid duplication, and have the most significant impact. We hope it will be of similar use to Ukrainian organizations, NGOs, and international aid organizations.
As Ukraine moves from its current humanitarian phase to reconstruction, the promise of the healthcare improvements initiated in the past 10 years may come to fruition. With reconstruction support, Ukraine will have the capability to build a highly effective mental healthcare system, and the opportunity to restore human capital, ensuring a healthy population for its future.