The Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) in Mannheim and the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University are improving the skills of Ukrainian mental health specialists in the field of psychotraumatology. They are evaluating the scalability and acceptance of the eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) approach in Ukraine in efficient and scalable group settings.\r
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Context\r
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Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is having far-reaching adverse impacts on the mental health of the population and members of the armed forces. Ukrainian specialist doctors therefore need to be trained in effective trauma therapies. One such form of therapy is EMDR. Most guidelines on clinical practice recommend it as the treatment of choice for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Group Traumatic Episode Protocol (EMDR G-TEP) is an EMDR-based group therapy approach. It can therefore reach more patients than individual therapy and has become particularly important due to the urgent need for scalable interventions in Ukraine.\r
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Activities\r
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-\tProviding training on the use of EMDR therapy\r
-\tEvaluating the training and adapting it if necessary\r
-\tInstitutionalising EMDR and G-TEP training at medical universities in Ukraine\r
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Results\r
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Building specialist capacity on the EMDR therapy method improves the mental health of soldiers and the population as a whole. More than 3,000 patients benefit from treatment using EMDR therapy. This is made possible by training at least 100 doctors to conduct EMDR therapy.\r
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The long-term aim is to set up a network of EMDR specialists in Ukraine so that as many people as possible can access this innovative treatment within the public health service. \r