Remote support of home treatment of patients by application of virtual reality systems and professional support in mental health and physical rehabilitation in Ukraine

The rehabilitation of Ukrainian war victims and their families is an urgent need. Many patients are discharged early from inpatient treatment and require ongoing support for physical and psychological recovery in their home environment. A blended-care approach, combining both in-hospital or clinic-based therapy and at-home rehabilitation, can address this gap.

This project seeks to set up home support (outpatient) care systems in Ukraine for patients through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) systems for physical and psychological recovery. The project partners developed home-based VR systems  in mental health and in physical rehabilitation.

By means of such systems patients can be motivated in their home situation to work on their recuperation and social integration and blending with their family and work environment, while at the same time the use of VR provides a cost-effective approach and constitutes a good alternative in a scenario of lack of trained staff and resources and VR systems can be a very meaningful addition to the therapeutic arsenal of therapists and support care takers in their efforts to assist patients.

Another objective of the project will be to train professional staff in Ukraine in skills needed to optimally support patients in their home environment (such as trauma management in mental health and physiotherapy and other skills in physical recovery). Partner  PsyGlobal is operating a database in the Netherlands of Ukrainian staff based in the Netherlands trained in trauma management and treatment (by means of the modern and the World Health Organization (WHO)'s industry standard approach of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, as well as physiotherapists and other specialists important for physical recuperation of patients.

In this project this staff will be working closely with their counterparts in Ukraine to provide training, consultation and buddy support (in the Ukrainian language). The Ukrainian counterpart is  The Institute of Trauma Therapy. The organisation is experienced in  mental health and rehabilitation. Founded by experts involved in Ukrainian rehabilitation law, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) has operated in this sector for over four years, focusing on training both professionals and non-professionals. In this project, the Institute will act as the Ukrainian project coordinator, handling the training component to advance the skills of psychologists and therapists working with patients facing physical and mental trauma in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

The project will be implemented in two mental health and six physical rehabilitation centres in Ukraine and the final phase will focus on implementation of this approach country wide. The partners aim at setting up a viable and cost-effective alternative to in-patient care to patients in need of mental and physical recovery, the advantages of which are that large patient numbers can benefit from this alternative system at a low cost.