October 28, 2025
News
Caritas Czech Republic, together with regional and local authorities and partners, has established the first children's Mental Health Centres in Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Thanks to this, families with children receive specialised support and treatment for free, on time and in comfort.
Spaces of safety and cosiness
Studying and leisure activities accompanied by the sound of air raids, constant stress and danger, forced relocation — these and other traumatic experiences affect Ukrainian children's mental health. Experts note a general worsening of children's mental health as a consequence of the war. In particular, there has been an increase in anxiety disorders, depression, and other cognitive issues.
To provide timely mental health assistance and specialised treatment to all families in need, Ukraine has been developing an ecosystem of mental health care services over the past two years. This is part of the nationwide programme ‘TY YAK?’ (How are you?), implemented under the patronage of the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska. This ecosystem is designed to provide multi-level psychological and psychiatric support, from school psychologists to multidisciplinary teams based in large-scale hospitals.
At the end of September, two children's Mental Health Centres opened in Ukraine with the support of Caritas Czech Republic. The centres are based in regional children's hospitals in the cities of Mukachevo and Ivano-Frankivsk. They became the first of their kind in Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
Our team renovated and equipped the Centres' premises to make them equally pleasant and comfortable for families with children and staff. Everything, including the colour of the walls, furniture, and toys, has been chosen to promote well-being, personal growth, and recovery.
“We visited various locations, studied the best practices and recommendations for setting up such centres, and also involved experts from the All-Ukrainian programme “TY YAK?” (How are you?). We aimed to create the most comfortable spaces for children, where they would feel at home rather than in a hospital,” said Jana Markiv, project manager at Caritas Czech Republic.
For this purpose, each centre has bright and airy rooms for psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists, as well as rooms for individual and group therapy, psychological relief, and day care. There are also many educational toys, special tactile panels, and training materials. In addition, we provided barrier-free showers and comfortable changing rooms.
Regional budgets funded the purchase, laboratory equipment and provided accessibility to children's centres for people with low mobility.
Specialists will reach children in remote communities
According to the management of the Mental Health Centre at the Zakarpattia Regional Children's Hospital in Mukachevo, over 300 children will receive free, high-quality care each month.
"This (the setting up of the Mental Health Centre - ed.) became possible thanks to the symbiosis of national institutions, regional and local authorities, and partnership. I am grateful to the Czech Republic and the Caritas Czech Republic team in Ukraine,” says with gratitude Taisiia Symochko, regional coordinator of the All-Ukrainian programme “TY YAK?" in Zakarpattia region.
In turn, the second children's Mental Health Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk was visited by nearly 200 children in just the first two weeks after its opening. Among them were internally displaced children from front-line or occupied areas.
Children's Mental Health Centres not only provide outpatient care in hospitals, but also have a mobile team that visits remote communities. All services are provided under the state medical insurance and include:
- psychiatric consultations for children — diagnosis, treatment plan;
- psychological support — individual, family, and group;
- crisis counselling — assistance in cases of acute emotional and stressful conditions;
- rehabilitation and recovery after crises and mental disorders;
- mobile teams assisting those who need support at home;
- psychoeducation and prevention — educational work with the teaching community and the general public.
The centres assist children aged 0 to 18 and their families. From the age of 14, children can apply for help independently or through a referral from a family doctor or other specialist.
Caritas Czech Republic in Ukraine
Mental well-being during wartime is one of Caritas Czech Republic's priorities in Ukraine. Our team is providing major repairs and refurbishment of 4 mental health centres: in Novoyavorivsk in the Lviv region, in Ivano-Frankivsk, in Mukachevo in the Zakarpattia region, and in Dnipro. In addition, we are renovating the Resilience Centre in Truskavets and organising events that promote the mental health of children and the integration of internally displaced families. We also support the most vulnerable internally displaced persons settled in western Ukraine by providing study and business grants to help them restore their sources of income. These activities are being implemented as part of our project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
Within this project in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the east, our team provides psychological support to teachers and schoolchildren in frontline communities. We are setting up safe educational spaces and organising catch-up classes. Near the front line in the south, we are restoring access to medical services and drinking water.
With the support of the Czech Development Agency, CzechAid, we are modernising rehabilitation units in the Dnipropetrovsk region, providing equipment and training staff.
Our team is also helping the most vulnerable groups in frontline communities to winterise their homes with the support of the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF).
