02 March 2022 14:24

Training held for specialists providing mental and social services to war participants and family members of martyrs

Opening ceremony of “Veteran’s Strengthening Project” was held online. The project is implemented with the initiative and organization of the State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance (Agency), Social Development Center of Education and Social Solidarity Association (TOGEM-DER), whose Honorary Chairman is First Lady, Mrs. Emina Erdoğan, spouse of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara University and Ankara Chamber of Commerce.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Agency Zaur Aliyev, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Cahit Bağcı, Chairman of the Petition Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, MP Mihrimah Belma Satır, rector of Ankara University, MP Necdet Ünüvar, dean of Medicine Department at Ankara University, Emine Özmete, Chairman of the Board of Ankara Chamber of Commerce Gürsel Baran, Chairman of Board of Togem-Der Füsun Türken Uysal spoke at the virtual event.

The project aims to increase the knowledge and skills of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers providing local services to the families of martyrs and veterans in our country and to achieve the improvement of the spiritual and psychological condition of family members of war veterans and martyrs.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Agency Zaur Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the support shown by the Republic of Turkey in various fields including healthcare: “Agency regularly organizes mutual visits and meetings to expand the cooperation with relevant healthcare institutions of brotherly country of Turkey. ‘Veteran’s Strengthening Project’ that we jointly implement is bright example of this cooperation”.

Z.Aliyev added that more than 100 persons in Baku were provided with services by Azerbaijani doctors-psychiatrists who study and work in Turkey as part of the mental and psychiatric support campaign to participants of Patriotic war.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors also mentioned the work carried out by the Agency according to state policy for the treatment of family members of martyrs and persons wounded defending the territorial integrity of our country: “More than 8500 participants of Second Karabakh War and family members of martyrs were provided with more than 120000 medical services with mandatory health insurance last year.”

In the first phase of the three-phase project, 10 trainers from Ankara University will conduct online training for more than 70 employees, including psychologists and psychiatrists employed at the medical entities subordinated to the Administration of the Regional Medical Divisions and Ministry of Health, as well as specialists from the Social Services Agency under the auspices of Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

The agenda of the training scheduled for March 01-11, covers such important topics as “Crisis response”, “Preventing self-harming behaviors” and “Primary mental support”.

The second phase of the project is planned to take place in Azerbaijan in April of the current year. The delegation of Turkish specialists will hold meetings with training participants and analyze the knowledge obtained during training. In the final stage, the participants will discuss the results and evaluate the effectiveness of the project by means of online meetings.