As part of the "Restoring Access to Health Care" Program, implemented with the assistance of the USAID Health Care Reform Support Project, employees of the Chuguiv City Primary Health Care Center, together with ten health care institutions from other communities in the Kharkiv region, joined the initiative to create multidisciplinary teams (MDKs). They include family doctors and nurses, social workers, and psychologists, whose interaction is based on maintaining constant communication and referrals within the team.
In total, 15 MDKs have been created on the basis of the Primary Health Care Center in the communities of Kharkiv region, 10 of which are stationary and 5 are mobile, which is especially important for communities where medical institutions have been damaged, there is a shortage of medical personnel, and constant shelling of territories is recorded. To ensure targeted visits of multidisciplinary teams and proactive interaction, it is planned to create patient databases and a map of their referral.
This initiative aims to improve the quality of medical services and support vulnerable groups of the population by introducing a patient-centered approach. The principle of operation of the MDK is simple: a person (or a whole family) in need of support contacts a family doctor, who assesses the situation and, if necessary, involves a social worker in its solution (for example, to process or restore documents, material assistance, including that related to the need for treatment). If he notices the need for psychological support, he also involves a psychologist. You can also seek help through a social worker, then he will be the "guide" in the service delivery system.
Services can also be provided unplanned: when during a visit, a doctor or social worker notices a patient’s vulnerability and signals the need for assistance to other colleagues from the MDC. This allows for timely response to needs and prevents complications from developing.
Anyone who feels vulnerable and needs medical, social or psychological assistance can seek help. For example, palliative patients (adults and children), disabled people of groups I and II, people aged 65+, veterans, internally displaced persons, etc.
Multidisciplinary teams specialize in solving a wide range of issues:
- medical: provision of medical care, participation in "Affordable Medicines" programs, receipt of rehabilitation equipment, etc.;
- social: assistance in obtaining material or humanitarian assistance, issues of social adaptation (finding a job, housing, arranging for children to continue their education), etc.;
- psychological: support in overcoming difficult situations, adaptation, combating stress and anxiety.
To learn more about the work of the MDK, contact your family doctor. Don't put off solving problems for tomorrow, take the first step towards improving the quality of life today!