By 2025, citizens will be able to receive rehabilitation services where they live

By 2025, citizens will be able to receive care from a single rehabilitation specialist – either at home, in their community, or in the city where they live. This will increase the availability of inpatient rehabilitation facilities for those who need them.

This was announced by Anastasiia Boichuk, strategic lead of the War Trauma Rehabilitation Project at the CF “Patients of Ukraine”, during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.

“For example, if someone has had a stroke and doesn’t need inpatient rehabilitation based on medical indicators, but still has mobility problems or difficulties using their hands, preventing them from eating or dressing independently, they don’t need the entire rehabilitation team. Instead, they may only need one specialist – a physical therapist or occupational therapist. Starting in 2025, people will be able to get help from these specialists where they live – at home, in their community, or in their city,” Boichuk said.

She noted that this initiative will facilitate access to small rehabilitation providers in small towns and large cities, and encourage people to transition out of inpatient care when appropriate.

Boichuk added that this process will require additional IT development and a large-scale awareness campaign targeting primary care physicians. Family physicians will play a critical role in referring patients for specific rehabilitation services provided by a single specialist based on clearly defined conditions.

“We need to educate primary care physicians and communicate this information to patients. Currently, statistics show that many inpatients in rehabilitation centers are middle-aged women with lower back pain. These are not the patients who should be occupying inpatient rehabilitation beds. Unfortunately, this results in a lack of space for those who truly need inpatient care. This misconception often leads to calls to build new rehabilitation centers, which is a completely wrong approach,” she emphasized.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news