NEWS AND VIEWS: U.S. project seeks to treat alcoholism in Ukraine
by Cathy Campbell
EUGENE, Oregon - Ted Hicks connected with Kyiv the moment he detrained in the Ukrainian capital. It was a moment that still fills him with joy, that still awes him with its power. In that moment, on a sunny afternoon in June of 1991, Mr. Hicks knew he had arrived at a place where his life and his life's work could converge.
A recovering alcoholic, Mr. Hicks had spent more than 10 years helping others find solace and success in sobriety. He was there that June to bring Western, self-help recovery meetings to the former Soviet Union. In Ukraine, he saw the catastrophic national consequences of a country with 5 million alcoholics.
He saw what worked and what didn't, and he dedicated himself to bringing to Ukraine a treatment program that would. He saw that thousands of Ukrainian health care professionals were at a turning point: motivated but lacking the basic resources and training information to offer effective treatment and change the situation forever.
Mr. Hicks can describe his instant love affair with Ukraine and its people, but he can't explain it. No matter. His passion has propelled him through the past four years, shored up his spirits whenever his bank balance dipped precariously, and inspired a tireless search for support.
He asked for and received official commitments and unofficial encouragement from top health and government officials in Ukraine. In 1994, Mr. Hicks created First Light Partners, a non-profit corporation that will implement the innovative training and treatment program.
Dozens of small donations, substantial personal contributions and faith kept the project on track. In October 1995, that commitment and faith was rewarded with a $20,000 grant from the West Foundation.
Mr. Hicks, 40, of Eugene, Oregon, sees this initial grant as the catalyst that will move First Light Partners from idea to implementation. And he's ready to get to work in Ukraine, where the need for a comprehensive alcohol treatment program is overwhelming. Mr. Hicks cites these statistics:
"The disease of alcoholism is many-faceted," Mr. Hicks explained. "Because it encompasses the mental, the emotional, the spiritual and the physical, treatment must address all these areas."
In Ukraine, the treatment for alcoholism has historically been limited to physical treatment. And that just doesn't work, Mr. Hicks noted. Long-term sobriety requires an ongoing, progressive recovery program and without it, Mr. Hicks added, "virtually none of those seeking treatment can hope to stay sober."
Dr. Andriy M. Serdiuk, Ukraine's first deputy minister of health, Ukraine has said there is a "profound interest in mastering, spreading and application of modern sophisticated technologies of alcoholic and drug dependencies."
Narcologists in Kyiv have noted that newly reborn Ukraine has an urgent need for modern, reliable treatment methods that can be utilized to treat the situation.
His colleagues in Ukraine are even more direct. The economic impact of alcoholism is enormous, notes Dr. Gennady Matsuka, senior director at the Ukraine Academy of Sciences.
In a letter of support for First Light Partners, Dr. Matsuka continued: "However, it is impossible to compare material losses with the loss of human life, the destruction of families, the disfigured fate of children, and the destruction of human intellect. Unfortunately, Ukraine is not an exception, but rather a place where alcoholism and addiction are steadily growing year after year, despite the fact that the war against alcoholism and addiction is drawing new strength from medicine and socio-therapy."
First Light Partners also has the official support of the Health's Ministry's Kyiv Research Institute of General and Forensic Psychiatry as well, which has offered to provide a clinical and training base for the project.
As Mr. Hicks put it, "The infrastructure is in place....they lack only the information that can save tens of thousands of lives."
First Light Partners has a clear mission: "to influence, permanently and for the better, the health care system of Ukraine through training and education about alcoholism treatment."
Mr. Hicks pointed out that past efforts by non-nationals to provide such aid, have been cursory, brief and bypassed the many skilled professionals in the existing health care system. These efforts were well-intentioned, he said, but they produced no substantial results.
Mr. Hicks believes long-term success of the program rests in training Ukrainian professionals in Western-based treatment methods. He said he expects more than 120 Ukrainian health care professionals to benefit directly from the training. Mr. Hicks explained, that because all of the training and treatment material will be manual based, it will be easier for those who receive training to pass this information along to their co-workers and associates.
Mr. Hicks added that he expects more than 2,400 patients to be treated within the scope of this project, and that more than 5,000 patients will be treated each year following the conclusion of First Light Partners' work. Tens of thousands, he said, will ultimately reap the benefits of this methodology, tried and proven effective in the United States, but new to Ukraine.
The First Light Partners' project, Mr. Hicks explained, is planned in two distinct stages to ensure its success.
First, a culturally and socially specific treatment model and training program outline will be developed, and methodology will be adopted for the collection of crucial scientific data. During this 12-month planning stage, First Light Partners will develop a manual-based treatment outline based on established, effective Western methodology - the critical building blocks of the basic program model, Mr. Hicks pointed out. With the cooperation and encouragement of the Ministry of Health and many key officials in Ukraine, he noted, this model will be expanded and modified to meet the needs of the Ukrainian recovery community. The program manual and teaching aids will all be translated.
The basic model for the project will be adapted from a model supplied to First Light Partners by the National Institute on Alcohol and Abuse and Alcoholism, Mr. Hicks said. Ukrainian treatment methods will be considered in the model and incorporated whenever feasible, he emphasized, both to make sure that the program will last long beyond the project that launches it and to meet the requirements of worldwide scientific organizations examining the effects of new and modified treatments on various clientele.
The treatment plan will include clinical diagnosis, a developmental model of recovery, relapse prevention therapy, and an introduction to self-help groups for alcoholics and their families.
During the two years of the project's second stage, Western specialists in the treatment of alcoholism and substance abuse, working as volunteers, will train Ukrainian health care professionals.
Three six-month courses will be offered in clinic and hospital settings to train medical professionals, lay workers and administrators. The project will be based at the state-of-the-art treatment facility at the settlement of Hlevakha, just outside Kyiv, made available to First Light Partners by the Ministry of Health. The ministry has also recently offered to provide a sanitarium in Kyiv for training and to house U.S. volunteers.
Mr. Hicks explained that "the economic situation in Ukraine is such that Ukrainian officials are in a position to provide everything but the money." He has made that his job.
With the recent West Foundation grant, and other funding pending, Mr. Hicks said he is confident that First Light Partners will be at work in Ukraine very soon. He continues to seek support from a variety of sources to meet the funding goal of $877,000 for the three-year project.
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For more information on First Light Partners, contact Ted Hicks, Executive Director, First Light Partners, 2680 McMillan St., Eugene, OR 97405; (503) 341-6447; or e-mail, [email protected]
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 18, 1996, No. 7, Vol. LXIV
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