USAID Public Health System Recovery and Resilience Activity and NGO Barrier-Free, the Executive Partner of the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program Initiated by First Lady Olena Zelenska, Signed a Memorandum of Cooperation.
The signing of the memorandum is yet another confirmation of both sides’ readiness to continue cooperation both during the war and Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction to ensure that mental health services are available to all Ukrainians who need them.
The Memorandum was signed by Oksana Zbitneva, head of the Mental Health Coordination Center under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and director of the NGO Barrier-Free and Alyona Gerasimova, head of USAID Public Health System Recovery and Resilience Activity and / Pact Ukraine Country Office director, in the presence of Robin Martz, USAID/Ukraine Health Office Director.
At the meeting where the document was signed, Robin Martz noted that the main goal of this memorandum is to continue the successful cooperation and coordination that began more than one year ago.
Priorities for further cooperation include developing and scaling up community-based mental health services, creating a culture of concern for mental health, building partnerships with American universities to train and improve the skills of service providers, integrating mental health issues into the public health system, establishing cooperation with centers for U.S. Army veterans, etc.