My name is Yevheniia Zakervska, I am a senior program manager of treatment programs at the ICF "Alliance of Public Health", working in the field of OAT and GBV.

Issue: Overcoming barriers to initiation of treatment and retention on the opioid agonist therapy (OAT) program, support of reproductive health.

Settings:
The war in Ukraine is going for 2,5 year and caused the humanitarian disaster, worsened the living conditions of people who use drugs, increased their needs for medical, psychological, and humanitarian support.
In Ukraine, there are an estimated 350,300 of PWID, these are predominantly opioid users (IBBS, 2021), about a 20% of them were women. As of July 2024, only 12.9% of 21.768 patients of the OAT program were women (2.805 person), among OAT patients - 27% men and 44.3% women are HIV+.
In initial surveys, which were conducted by patient organizations, on average 7 out of 10 women indicated that the main barrier to start OAT program are: stigmatization, waiting in lines for OAT and impossibility of leaving a child unattended.

Project:
Within the project we equipped and opened in 5 "Mother and Child” rooms at largest OAT sites in Ukraine where women in all their diversity can receive comprehensive services: psychological, social, medical, legal and humanitarian support, solving of gender-based violence issues, assistance after released from prison, etc. Services aimed to support physical, reproductive, and mental health, considering age-related changes in menopause period. Counselling, linkage to friendly doctors, children’s well-being checking, HIV testing, TB, STIs and human papillomavirus screening, and vaccination is provided in a comfortable and safe space.

Outcomes:
The project will last 3 years, and already in the first 6 months, 196 women received services (156 medical, 166 psychological, 8 pediatrician, 487 social support, 71 humanitarian support services, 7 paralegal/legal consultations), 18 women started OAT.
The project is in high demand among clients and support overcome barriers in access to prevention and treatment services.