Another branch of the innovative rehabilitation centre RECOVERY, which has been providing free assistance to wounded soldiers since April 2023, has been opened in Odesa. From now on, more than 1,500 defenders of Ukraine will be able to recover here every year.
The national network of rehabilitation centres RECOVERY was founded by Victor and Olena Pinchuk to help the Security and Defence Forces, which have been fighting the enemy since the first days of the war. Today, the project has 11 centres in different parts of Ukraine.
The new branch of the Odesa RECOVERY centre is equipped according to international standards of inclusiveness and technology. Its opening has increased the number of beds from 30 to 60. The wards are equipped with multifunctional beds with electric drive and functional furniture for a comfortable and convenient stay of patients. The entire space is barrier-free for patients: wide doorways, no thresholds, anti-slip flooring, handrails in the corridors, inclusive toilets with space sufficient for people in wheelchairs.
An additional physical rehabilitation room with virtual reality technology and patient feedback was opened here, as well as rooms for individual and group sessions, assistive technology, electroneuromyography, ergotherapy, manipulation and resident rooms. The centre is also equipped with additional rehabilitation equipment, including stairs with an inclined frame and a ceiling lift to restore walking skills, a stabilisation platform to correct balance and coordination, and an upper limb rehabilitation system with virtual reality technology and patient feedback.
The RECOVERY project is an example of a successful partnership between the private sector and the state, when philanthropists create innovative rehabilitation centres on the basis of state medical institutions. Thus, the project funded a major overhaul of the 4th floor of the medical facility where the rehabilitation centre operates.
“When we were developing plans for 2024 at the end of 2023, we planned to open new centres as close as possible to the heroes’ places of residence and their families. But we also agreed to develop some of the RECOVERY centres that are already operating. It is important to invest where there are the best professionals with the most passionate eyes. I remember the Odesa team from the first time I met them, they were very professional. If you ask the heroes, they all say that the Odesa centre has a great reputation,” says Victor Pinchuk, founder of the RECOVERY project.
The complex of simulators and rehabilitation devices at the Odesa centre covers the entire range of possible functional disorders, including those caused by mine-blast injuries, and helps to restore the wounded at a high technological level. As in other centres of the RECOVERY network, an experienced multidisciplinary rehabilitation team, including specialists in physical rehabilitation medicine, physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists and others, works with patients at the Odesa centre.
“Being a part of RECOVERY means, firstly, the opportunity to provide high-quality, evidence-based rehabilitation care in state-of-the-art conditions to our defenders. It is also an opportunity for our team to receive continuous training, as the network regularly hosts educational seminars, workshops and trainings. By learning and exchanging experience between teams, we are making the entire sector in Ukraine stronger,” says Olena Tarakanova, head of the RECOVERY rehabilitation centre in Odesa.
Today, 11 RECOVERY rehabilitation centres provide free services in Kyiv, Lviv, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa (two centres) and Dnipro region (three centres). In total, almost 8,000 patients have already received rehabilitation care in the centres of the national network.
The founders of the RECOVERY project, Victor and Olena Pinchuk, plan to expand the network to at least 16 innovative rehabilitation centres by the end of 2024, where about 20,000 servicemen can recover annually.