Equal to an equal

Ukraine’s first Addiction Institute for the treatment of people addicted to alcohol, drugs, and gambling has opened in Vorzel, near Kyiv, on the premises of Regional Neuropsychological Hospital No. 2. During the opening ceremony, Larysa Piotrovych, deputy chairperson of the Kyiv Oblast Council, noted that although there are 50 rehabilitation centers in Ukraine, this is a unique medical complex because it also treats gamblers.

According to psychotherapist Volodymyr Yary, a drug and alcohol expert at the institute, rehabilitation lasts 28 days. “We offer treatment according to the principle of ‘equal to an equal.’ In other words, patients are treated by people who were once dependent on alcohol, drugs, and gambling. They know the mentality of patients and can really help them,” say Dr. Yary. “We have also established cooperation with experts from the Psychology Department at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University. We are planning to open similar institutes all over Ukraine. Projects like this one are already being carried out in Donetsk and Lviv. In general, the aim of our institute is to help people see a new and wholesome world without dependencies.”

So far there are only three patients at the hospital. Serhii is one of them. “I began to use alcohol and then drugs when I was 12 years old,” he says. “Although I was studying at a college, doing sports, and working, there was not a single day that I was sober. I wasted all my money on gambling in casinos. Then I decided to get some help from doctors, so now I am here. I feel better, but I am afraid I won’t be able to give up drugs and alcohol any time soon. I live one day at a time and don’t expect any miracles. Nobody had to convince me to go to the hospital: I decided to do it for the sake of my family, so that they would calm down, if only a little bit.”