History and mission of the project
The charitable foundation MENTAL HELP 365 was created to achieve a sustainable social impact in strengthening the mental health of Ukrainian families
The key beneficiaries of our individual correctional/rehabilitation programs are children with special educational needs, orphans, children from incomplete or foster families, and children from military families.
As told by the co-founders
Oleg Rybalka, then a member of the board and operations director of the Ukrainian Professional Esports Association (UPEA), viewed Mental Help 365 as a service that is simple and accessible in terms of speed of access.
We aimed to create an extremely practical and universal service in terms of its technical implementation. This service should be practical and universal for correctional specialists, children, their parents, and for the manager who administers the operational process and ensures the quality of the social service. We also needed partners and donors. We understood well that merely having ideas and the desire to be useful wouldn't take us far.
Oleg Rybalka, then a member of the board and operations director of the Ukrainian Professional Esports Association (UPEA), viewed Mental Help 365 as a service that is simple and accessible in terms of speed of access.
We aimed to create an extremely practical and universal service in terms of its technical implementation. This service should be practical and universal for correctional specialists, children, their parents, and for the manager who administers the operational process and ensures the quality of the social service. We also needed partners and donors. We understood well that merely having ideas and the desire to be useful wouldn't take us far.
Dmytro Vakulenko, a practicing child psychologist and neuropsychologist, developed a system for assessing the results of correctional programs and created standards for the staffing policy of Mental Help 365.
It was important for us to create an environment where a correctional specialist physically located in, for example, Khmelnytsky, could be effective and helpful to a child residing in Mykolaiv or Kharkiv. Furthermore, the connection and work with the child should not be interrupted even if the family decided to move from their permanent place of residence. Additionally, the staffing issue proved to be especially challenging, as many correctional specialists at the time changed their place of residence and even profession. We were literally "hunting" for every expert day and night.
Dmytro Vakulenko, a practicing child psychologist and neuropsychologist, developed a system for assessing the results of correctional programs and created standards for the staffing policy of Mental Help 365.
It was important for us to create an environment where a correctional specialist physically located in, for example, Khmelnytsky, could be effective and helpful to a child residing in Mykolaiv or Kharkiv. Furthermore, the connection and work with the child should not be interrupted even if the family decided to move from their permanent place of residence. Additionally, the staffing issue proved to be especially challenging, as many correctional specialists at the time changed their place of residence and even profession. We were literally "hunting" for every expert day and night.
Later on, Hanna Radchenko, the President of the All-Ukrainian Civil Organization Let’s Do It Green Ukraine, which is engaged in children’s and youth projects in the field of health and ecology, joined the project to provide psychological diagnostics and assistance to Ukrainian children.
In 2022, we encountered a situation where a huge number of children and adolescents could not be promptly diagnosed due to the war, and without diagnosis, it was difficult to select an effective correctional program. Diagnosis involves communication between the child and their parents with the correctional specialist. It was necessary to digitize the operational processes, both internal and external. We began consulting, trying, and gradually succeeding. We are currently developing the automation of work processes. Mental Help 365 needs resilience as the basis for the effectiveness of the final result for the child and their family.
Later on, Hanna Radchenko, the President of the All-Ukrainian Civil Organization Let’s Do It Green Ukraine, which is engaged in children’s and youth projects in the field of health and ecology, joined the project to provide psychological diagnostics and assistance to Ukrainian children.
In 2022, we encountered a situation where a huge number of children and adolescents could not be promptly diagnosed due to the war, and without diagnosis, it was difficult to select an effective correctional program. Diagnosis involves communication between the child and their parents with the correctional specialist. It was necessary to digitize the operational processes, both internal and external. We began consulting, trying, and gradually succeeding. We are currently developing the automation of work processes. Mental Help 365 needs resilience as the basis for the effectiveness of the final result for the child and their family.
Currently, Mental Help 365 is a team of more than 40 correctional specialists, child psychologists, speech therapists, and neuropsychologists.
On average, we conduct 51 individual correctional sessions with children and adolescents every day and actively work with their parents.
Diagnostics and psychological assistance are provided to children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 in both online and offline modes throughout Ukraine (except for the occupied regions).
During the period of 2022-2023, more than 1700 children became participants in individual correctional programs.
The current results motivate and drive us to scale up, taking into account the ongoing war in our country.
Therefore, we aim to provide systematic and effective psychological assistance to 10,000 children during the period of 2023-2025.