Improved access to MHPSS services in Ukraine Ucare.me is an online platform that aims to provide MHPSS support to Ukrainians. Ucare.me has an ambition to provide Mental Health and Psych-Social support to tens of thousands of Ukrainians to deal in constructive way with the stress of war, restore their psycho-emotional state and find strength for a new and better life. Within the framework of the Ucare.me project our foundation will be able to provide quality psychological assistance to Ukrainians, as we will work with professional and qualified specialists.

 Ukrainian psychological associations with which we have signed memoranda spread information among their specialists about our platform. Interested specialists contact us and undergo an interview. We activate those who suit us in our system, and they start accepting clients. To date, 138 psychologists have been registered in the system, of which 51 specialists have been activated and are now working and accepting clients. We do not activate all of them, because we have a strategic stock. We activate only those that are most suitable according to our criteria for working with specific clients. We plan to expand the number of experts accordingly to the number of clients. We will also support the community of Ukrainian psychologists and help them avoid professional burnout associated with volunteering.

According to our criteria, each psychologist can conduct no more than three sessions per day, while each psychotherapist can conduct no more than five sessions per day. It also depends on the level of the specialist, which we determine at the interview. If a specialist has more than three years of experience, is constantly undergoing professional training, is in personal therapy, then they can conduct more than 5 sessions a day. Otherwise, the specialist will conduct fewer sessions. Every client is expected to have 10 sessions. With the contribution of the Netherlands Refugee Foundation, we would provide 5 sessions for 600 Ukrainians.

 

The client journey on the Ucare.me platform consists of:

 Finding the Ucare.me platform, for example, through a social media ad, clicking "Submit a request" for a consultation on the main page of the site and filling out data in the registration form. Then a person receives confirmation by email that the application was successfully accepted and is being processed. After that they receive a call or message from the specialist assigned to them on the platform and agree on the date and time of the consultation, a convenient way of communication. If a psychologist assigned to a client is located nearby, she or he will offer you the possibility of a face-to-face consultation. On the specified date and time, an initial consultation with a specialist is held, during which she or he will diagnose a client’s condition, clarify the request, and needs. After the initial consultation, the specialist will continue working with the client or refer them to another specialist who will meet their needs best. If necessary, client agrees with the specialist on the date of the next consultation. After the first consultation a client will receive from the specialist a link to the questionnaire, which she/he can fill out as feedback after the consultation. After the initial consultation, a client can change the psychologist by filling out the feedback form. The next consultations take place. If a client has force majeure circumstances and is forced to postpone the date or time of the consultation, she or he must notify the psychologist no later than 24 hours before the appointed time of the consultation. After completing the 10th consultation, a client will receive from the specialist a link to the feedback questionnaire after completing the consultation course, in which she or he rates their cooperation (from 1 to 5) and leaves their feedback in an arbitrary form. If a client wishes to continue working with a psychologist after the 10th consultation, she or he can agree on this personally with the specialist and work with him outside the platform.