Estonia to implement rehabilitation training programme for Ukrainian health care workers
Ukraine has seen a dramatic increase in the need for evidence-based rehabilitation to efficiently treat war-related injuries. However, the current approach lacks modern methods and up-to-date knowledge.
With the support of the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV), Tallinn Health Care College and Estonian health care providers have developed a comprehensive training programme for Ukrainian health care workers. This programme will equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to improve access to and quality of rehabilitation.
More than 25,000 people have lost limbs during the Russian war on Ukraine. According to the Department of Health in Kyiv, 15,000 amputees were recorded in the first half of this year alone. Ukraine is now the most heavily mined country in the world, so there may be many more to come.
Ukraine lacks sufficient rehabilitation centers and specialists to address this increase in demand. To help alleviate the situation, ESTDEV’s project will train 40 health care workers from the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions this year, with the cooperation of eight Ukrainian and five Estonian hospitals. The programme provides theoretical and practical overviews of the principles of modern multidisciplinary rehabilitation, while focusing on the treatment of patients with amputated limbs in both the pre-prosthetic and post-prosthetic stages.
“The war has taken an immense toll on the country, but the Ukrainian people have shown incredible resilience. This project will share Estonian expertise on rehabilitation and empower Ukrainian medical personnel to provide Ukrainian amputees with a better chance of coping and living a productive, dignified life in the future,” said Margus Gering, Head of Cooperation and Reconstruction of Ukraine at ESTDEV.
Estonia gained its knowledge of current rehabilitation methods over the last 10 years with the support of partners in the United States, who invested their time and resources in modernizing Estonia’s rehabilitation system. Now, by paying it forward to support Ukraine, ESTDEV will be working toward the long-term goal of assisting Ukrainian health care providers as they update their physical and psychological rehabilitation methods. By the end of the project, a post-amputation rehabilitation training programme for Ukrainian health care workers will be in place.
This project builds on Estonia’s long-standing cooperation with Ukrainian universities in the field of health care. Even before the war, health care universities from the two countries were working in tandem to bring Ukraine’s curriculum in line with Estonia’s. The next stage of this project will also provide support to Ukrainian universities as they update their rehabilitation study programmes.
The rehabilitation training programme for Ukrainian health care workers is scheduled to take place in October and November of 2023 with a total budget of 235 500 EUR.
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