Ministry of Health consistently supports the introduction of medical chaplaincy in Ukraine

The public council was represented by: its chairman – Professor Serhiy Ubogov, head of the Department of quality control and standardization of medicines of the National University of Health of Ukraine named after L. Shupyk, and Deputy Chairman of the public council Andrii Nahirniak, archpriest of the UGCC.

As the chairman of the public council noted: “The meeting was enriching and constructive. The main topic is the introduction of chaplaincy in the healthcare sector.”

Among the issues discussed are the inclusion of the profession "Chaplain in Healthcare" in the classifier of professions, the state of development of the network of chaplains in the regions, the adoption of the Code of Ethics of chaplains, the beginning of clinical chaplain training, the development of regulations on chaplaincy in healthcare, the launch of pilot projects to create interfaith chaplain services in healthcare institutions.

The meeting participants also discussed the prospects for developing a draft law on chaplaincy in healthcare, the need to raise awareness of the medical community on chaplaincy issues and conduct a questionnaire survey of heads of health care institutions about the prospects for creating chaplain services on the basis of the institutions they head.

Following the meeting, the creation of a working group of the Ministry of Health on the development of draft regulatory legal acts on the introduction of chaplaincy in the healthcare sector was initiated. The participants agreed that at the next regular meeting of the public council under the Ministry of Health on cooperation with the AUCCRO, concrete results of work in the field of organizing medical chaplaincy in Ukraine should be presented.