On the 29th of May, we officially opened our new Early Intervention Service in Fastiv, a city in Ukraine’s Kyiv region.
This new Early Intervention Service will provide comprehensive support to families with young children aged 0 to 4 who have developmental delays or are at risk of such delays, and its launch was only made possible thanks to the tireless work from our Ukraine team, and the generous support of the UBS Optimus Foundation.
The opening of the service marks the culmination of three years of work and planning, as well as the beginning of a new model of support in Ukraine that has the potential to revolutionise life for local children and families. It means we’ll be able to help more children from Fastiv like Andrii.
Creating this service was a true community effort, and we were delighted that representatives of local and regional authorities joined our Ukraine team for the opening ceremony at the Fastiv Multidisciplinary Intensive Care Hospital, where the service will be based.
A pressing need
Disability is one of the biggest issues driving children into institutions in Ukraine. In rural areas in particular, there is very limited or no availability of specialist services. Even before the conflict in Ukraine began, support for children with disabilities was a critical issue – and now it is much worse.
After the war started, there were almost 700 children in Fastiv without any support services at all: around 200 who’d been displaced by the war, and 500 existing residents with disabilities and developmental disorders.
Without support, these children were at high risk of being taken into institutions, and so our Ukraine team set to work to prevent that from happening.
In cooperation with local authorities and staff at the hospital, repairs were made to the site where the service would be based, and a ramp was installed so that it would be accessible for parents with prams and people using wheelchairs.
At the same time, all the necessary physical rehabilitation equipment, developmental and corrective games, furniture, computer equipment, and software were purchased for the service.
Providing specialist care
Currently, the Early Intervention Service is staffed by a team of specialists: a Head Specialist in Physical Rehabilitation, a Psychologist and Corrective Educator, and a Social Worker. Pediatricians from the hospital where the service is based also provide assistance and consultations.
The service is now actively up and run: children are being admitted, a database of children is being put together with the cooperation of pediatricians, and procedures are being analysed to ensure best practice.
The team is also providing training for local people. So far 206 specialists – including teachers, social workers and medical professionals from Fastiv and Bucha – have been trained to recognise early signs of developmental delays, and informed how to improve their cooperation with each other and refer children to early intervention services.
An innovative approach
Despite being newly established, the team is already innovating – devising new ways to spread information about the service to encourage parents to seek help. The head of the service, Liudmyla Opravkhata, is working proactively and dreams of creating not only a place to help young children but also a support group for parents:
“This will be a space where parents can talk and help solve life issues, while children learn to interact with each other. Parents are the driving force — I know this for sure. The main thing is to unite them!”
The service’s staff are also working to change attitudes towards disability in the community, as many parents in small communities like Fastiv try to avoid even acknowledging that their child needs external assistance.
A new model
By pioneering this kind of support, care and training for the community in Fastiv, we hope to share the learnings and practices of this new service with local authorities in other regions of Ukraine.
We aim to provide professionals across Ukraine with the training and knowledge base they need to replicate this model of care in their own districts, and ensure that many more families and children in Ukraine get the support they need.
