A new mental health center has started operating in Kremenchuk as part of the nationwide «POVERNENNYA» network founded by Viktor and Olena Pinchuk. Starting this year, military personnel, male and veteran female fighters, as well as their family members, will be able to receive free professional psychological and psychiatric care here. Funded by the project, capital renovations were carried out on the premises located within one of the city's key medical institutions — the Kremenchuk Intensive Care Hospital — where the center is now housed.
What is equipped in the center
The center's space includes rooms for individual and family support, a group therapy room, a two-bed day hospital ward, a treatment room, a reception area, and a waiting lounge. Special attention is paid to accessibility: wide doorways, no thresholds, non-slip flooring, and inclusive restrooms. The center is equipped with modern facilities, including the innovative Shiftwave System for psychological relief and stress management, art therapy materials, psychological games, sensory support tools, and multimedia equipment. Specialists have also been provided with a professional library of 50 books.
How care is provided
A multidisciplinary team works with visitors, including a psychologist, psychiatrists, a clinical psychologist, a psychologist, nurses, and a receptionist. When necessary, a veteran support specialist and a hospital staff member join the work. Evidence-based methods are applied — cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma-informed therapy, with individual, family, and group consultations conducted. Medical treatment is prescribed if needed, and assistance is provided both on an outpatient basis and at the patients' place of residence.
Project voices
According to Artem Chernyshev, head of the «POVERNENNYA» center in Kremenchuk, for the region's military personnel and veterans, the opening of the center is primarily an opportunity to receive professional care close to home. «Our multidisciplinary team comprehensively assesses a person's condition and selects an individual approach to treatment. We work with various consequences of experienced wartime trauma, paying special attention to confidentiality, safety, and trust. It is important that everyone in need of support knows: help is available, professional, and free of charge», he noted. Project manager Svitlana Hrytsenko added that the fear of judgment and prejudice still causes many to keep quiet about psychological difficulties, which is why the network is developing so that everyone can receive support without fear of stigmatization.
Network scale and plans
The «POVERNENNYA» project is positioned as an example of private-public partnership: benefactors create comfortable and accessible mental health centers on the basis of state and municipal medical institutions, ensuring access to free professional care. Today, the network unites 18 centers operating in Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv and the Kyiv region, Kremenchuk, Kropyvnytskyi, Lutsk, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv. At the first stage, the opening of at least 25 centers across Ukraine is planned, which will be able to provide support to more than 100,000 military personnel, veterans, and their family members annually.
The center in Kremenchuk is located at: 80 Lesi Ukrainky Avenue, 4th floor, Kremenchuk Intensive Care Hospital. Contact phone number: +380 (63) 104-45-29, email: [email protected].
