On June 4, 2025, an important strategic meeting with regional stakeholders in the field of education and psychosocial services was held. The event was held within the framework of the All-Ukrainian mental health program “How are you?” — an initiative of the First Lady Olena Zelenska — in cooperation with the regional military administration.
The event was opened with a welcoming speech and a vision of the future of cooperation by the Deputy Head of the Regional Military Administration, Dmytro Radulov, and the Advisor to the Head of the Regional State Administration on Mental Health, Hanna Velychko.
Four universities of the city of Odessa took part in the event, including the State Institution “South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushynskyi”:
• guarantors of educational programs — Assoc. Prof. Olha Vodolazka, Prof. Svitlana Sytnik, Prof. Nataliia Chernenko, etc.;
• heads of key centers — Andrii Bortov (Mental Health Center), Iryna Brynza (Mediation and Supervision Center), Natalia Chernenko (Professional Development Center).
The purpose of the meeting is to connect representatives of higher education institutions that train specialists in the fields of psychology, social work, rehabilitation, speech therapy and management with those who are already working in the field of psychosocial services, which allows not only to update the vision of educational programs, but also to create conditions for greater compliance of specialist training with current challenges of society.
During the day, participants visited:
• Mental Health Center "Our City",
• Mental Health Center of the 10th City Clinical Hospital, Communications Department and the "Patient School" project,
• VeteranHub Odesa,
• Regional Scientific Library named after M. Hrushevsky,
• Equestrian Club as an example of a space for psycho-emotional and physical adaptation.
Special attention was paid to updating policies and approaches to providing psychological assistance in the region, including work with veterans and their families. The prospects for sports and professional adaptation were presented, and directions for improving the practical training of higher education applicants in accordance with the needs of the regional labor market were discussed.
The vision of the event is to identify gaps between expectations for a specialist in the real service sector and educational outcomes that are formed in higher education institutions, another step towards creating a more holistic system of training specialists capable of effectively responding to today's challenges.