Ukraine’s Ministry of Health has published a report on a study visit to Denmark examining how that country builds and delivers mental health services for children and adolescents — a system regarded as one of the most developed in Europe. The delegation visited a specialist child and adolescent mental health clinic, reviewing how Denmark organises community-based care, early identification, and multi-disciplinary outpatient services as the default model.
The core message is hard to argue with – post-war recovery that does not put children’s mental health at its centre will not hold.
Author’s Take
Ukraine has a genuinely strong clinical tradition in individual-level work with children experiencing mental health conditions — psychiatrists and psychologists trained in that school are real. The gap shows up at the community level: group-based programmes, school-integrated support, and community-led delivery are underdeveloped.
Denmark has spent decades moving in exactly the opposite direction. What the MoH team saw in Copenhagen is a system built around keeping young people in their communities, with clinical services as a backstop rather than the entry point. That model is harder to transplant than a protocol, but the direction is right.
One indicator that deserves more attention in this conversation: youth smoking rates. In 2022, about 22% of Ukrainian adolescents smoked. In Denmark that same year, the figure had fallen to 2.7% — a record low — even as nicotine product use in other forms (patches, vapes) was rising.
Adolescent substance use together with the prevalence of the mental health conditions would be a primary indicators of the success of county’s initiatives now and it future prospects.