Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine: Special Issue 50-4bokBW | Page 36

J Rehabil Med 2018; 50: 338–341 SPECIAL REPORT RESPONDING TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION GLOBAL DISABILITY ACTION PLAN IN UKRAINE: DEVELOPING A NATIONAL DISABILITY, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION PLAN Christoph GUTENBRUNNER, MD, FRCP 1 , Piotr TEDERKO, MD, PhD 2 , Klemen GRABLJEVEC, MD, MBA 3 and Boya NUGRAHA, MS, PhD 1 From the 1 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany, 2 Department of Rehabilitation, First Medical Faculty, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland and 3 Brain Injury Rehabilitation Department, University Rehabilitation Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia In order to support the development of a Na- tional Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan (NDHRP) for Ukraine, a technical consultation was carried out by a Rehabilitation Advisory Team (RAT) of the International Society of Phy- sical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) in 2015. The consultation was based on assessment of the situation of persons with disabilities and the rehabilitation system in Ukraine. Recommendations for activities and projects to improve rehabilitation services within the healt- hcare system were developed and proposed. In order to reach consensus on the recommenda- tions, dialogues were held with different stake- holders, including the Ministry of Public Health. The recommendations included: coordination of disability and rehabilitation policies within the Ministry of Public Health and among other in- volved ministries; translation and adaptation of international definitions of functioning, disabi- lity, and assessment tools into Ukrainian; data collection on the epidemiology of disability and the need for rehabilitation; implementation of health-related rehabilitation services; and imple- mentation of international definitions and curri- cula of rehabilitation professions. The mission was regarded as successful and one year later a few changes had been adopted by the Ukrainian government. Further action based on this research is necessary. It will be important to track the changes and evaluate the results af- ter an appropriate period of time. Key words: rehabili tation service situation ana- lysis; Rehabilitation Advisory Team; National Disa- bility, Health and Rehabilitation Plan; rehabilitation services; rehabilitation professions. Accepted Oct 20, 2017; Epub ahead of print Dec 22, 2017 J Rehabil Med 2018: 50: 338–3 41 Correspondence address: Christoph Gutenbrunner, De- partment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625 Hannover, Ger- many. E-mail: [email protected] U kraine has been an independent country since 1991, when it gained independence from the Soviet Union. It has a population of approxima- tely 45 million. According to national registries 2.7 million people live with disability; 22.6% due to diseases of the circulatory system, 21.5% due to neoplasms, 11.2% due to musculoskeletal causes, and 10.8% as consequence of trauma or injury. The health system is based on a state funding system and includes some rehabilitation services. Its philosophy, and the description of health professionals, is based on the health system of the Soviet Union. The government of Ukraine (in particular the Ministry of Health) has decided to implement the principles of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Disability Action Plan 2014–2021 (GDAP; 1). In 2015, a technical consultation was carried out by a Rehabilitation Advisory Team (RAT) of the International Society of Physical and Reha- bilitation Medicine (ISPRM) in order to support the development of a National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan (NDHRP) for Ukraine (2). The mission was based on the United Nations (UN) Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (3) and the World Report on Disability (WRD; 4)). The goal-setting is derived from the WHO GDAP Better Health for All People with Disabilities (1), which was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2014 (5). METHODS The mission was based on assessment of the current situation of persons with disabilities and the rehabilitation system (including rehabilitation services and rehabilitation workforce training), and the application of international standards that lead to recommendations to improve the system. The mission consisted of the collection of rele- vant data on the health and rehabilitation system (6), site visits, and consultations with relevant stakeholders in disability and rehabilitation (2). Recommendations were developed by the advi- sors and discussed with different stakeholders This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. www.medicaljournals.se/jrm doi: 10.2340/16501977-2294 Journal Compilation © 2018 Foundation of Rehabilitation Information. ISSN 1650-1977