The wife of the President of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, visited the Veteran Space in Irpen and the Primary Health Care Center in Bucha, Kyiv region.

As Ukrinform reports, Zelenska reported this on Telegram.

"Over 80 thousand veterans and their family members in the Kyiv region alone. And with any of their requests or needs, they can always come here - to Veteran Space," the post says.

Zelenska noted that there are already three spaces of this format in the Kyiv region. The third, Veteran Space Irpin, opened less than a year ago as a joint project of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, the Irpin City Council, and the VETERAN. PRO platform of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs.

The First Lady visited the space as part of an off-site meeting of the Interdepartmental Coordination Council together with Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Veterans Affairs Natalia Kalmykova, Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko, and Deputy Head of the President's Office Iryna Vereshchuk.

As the center's director Volodymyr Parkhonyuk noted,"social support, legal consultations, assistance in developing one's own business, educational activities are combined here with joint sports and cultural leisure activities and, of course, with care for mental health, because it is precisely a conversation with a psychologist that often becomes one of the key points in returning to civilian life after the front."

The President's wife emphasized that this is currently a complex task not only for the center, but for all departments and the entire society. That is why, according to her, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs is implementing a separate priority project in this direction,"Transition from military service to civilian life (in terms of psychological assistance)." More than 1,600 specialists, Zelenska noted, are already accompanying veterans throughout Ukraine.

"We have been waiting for you. We and the country need you at every stage of your life." To tell veterans this, words alone are not enough. We need opportunities and solutions. We need effective support," Zelenska emphasized.

As the President's wife noted in the following post,"The Buchanan Primary Health Care Center today combines care for physical and mental health."

According to Zelenska, mental health support is already available in fourteen of his outpatient clinics, eight of which are located in rural areas. It is provided by family doctors who have undergone modern training under the WHO international mhGAP program.

She noted that"for the first time in Ukrainian practice, such support has become so close to people: it is not in remote institutions, but nearby, with their doctor, whom they have known and trusted for a long time."

"I see this as an undoubted achievement of the All-Ukrainian mental health program "How are you?", over the three years of its existence, more than 130 thousand primary care specialists, including more than 23 thousand family doctors, have been trained under the mhGAP program," Zelenska noted.

The President's wife visited the center together with representatives of ministries and departments that implement the "How Are You?" program every day: Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko, Head of the Coordination Center for Mental Health Oksana Zbitnieva, and Head of the Kyiv OVA Mykola Kalashnyk.

"We will also get acquainted with the work of a local invention - the Sympto.me application: an AI avatar will help determine physical or psychological complaints, monitor sleep, remind you of a doctor's appointment and suggest questions for him. This is not self-medication, but an effective tool for paying attention to yourself and your well-being, which everyone desperately needs today," Zelenska informed.

According to her, support, including for mental health, is becoming increasingly available in Ukraine.

"In addition to hospitals, there are already 130 mental health centers and 287 resilience centers operating in the country, where mental support is also available - free and high-quality. You just have to find the most convenient address nearby and apply," Zelenska noted.

As Ukrinform reported, Zelenska visited.