Helping a family, evacuating a mother from occupation, arranging prosthetics: how the military support team operates at Irpin Hospital

In May 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expanded the list of military units and formations where the service of social support for servicemembers and their families is provided. Since its implementation, over 20,000 military personnel have received assistance.

The service has been extended to military hospitals and training centers.

Following the expansion of Resolution 1050 (which defines the standard for providing the service – ed.), the team of the charitable foundation "Kharkiv with You" began offering services and supporting military personnel at Irpin Hospital. Prior to this, for over six months, support specialists had been providing services to servicemembers in military units across four regions – Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, and Irpin.

At the medical facility, assistance is provided to military personnel who are not in severe or critical condition. The target audience is defenders undergoing rehabilitation and recovery.

The team in Irpin is led by Anna Verbelchuk. The woman has extensive experience in volunteer work and aiding the military. The social support specialist says that working with servicemembers requires, above all, being an empathetic person.

"No resolution can cover all the needs a servicemember or their family might bring to you. Of course, we operate within the legal framework, but there are requests from military personnel that we address based on our internal ethics," shares Anna Verbelchuk.

The first request at the hospital came from a serviceman seeking help for his child, who has a severe speech disorder. The defender’s family lives in a small village without the necessary specialists. Unfortunately, the family did not seek help in time, and the child did not receive a disability status or a referral to an inclusive resource center. The specialists provided consultation and directed them to the appropriate institutions so the child could receive the necessary assistance. (At the time of publication, the child has already received the required help – ed.).

Anna Verbelchuk notes that when working with military personnel, it’s important to understand that, at first, they may have a certain level of distrust toward any specialists, as they have repeatedly turned to various authorities, faced rejections, or experienced prolonged delays in resolving issues.

Therefore, among other tasks, the specialists had to convince them that they were fully engaged in the assistance process, monitoring the situation, and maintaining contact via messengers even after resolving the issue, remaining available during all working hours.

"Direct, personal communication gives them faith that their service was not in vain, that their concerns are being addressed, that they are not forgotten and will not be forgotten, that they matter," emphasizes the social support specialist.

A distinctive feature of the service is that the support team must actively communicate with military units, as most requests from servicemembers relate to internal military affairs. For example, difficulties in obtaining documentation about injury circumstances, delays in submitting paperwork for combatant status certification, or untimely payments.

"Requests from soldiers vary widely – from post-divorce issues to the inability to obtain documents left in occupied territories, or family members being unable to receive certification," says the specialist.

One of the most challenging cases at the hospital involved a serviceman undergoing rehabilitation after a high-level amputation. His mother lives in occupied territory and refuses to leave because one family member has a disability. The soldier had one request – to convince his mother to evacuate, as their home had already been hit, and it was unsafe for her to stay, especially with two sons defending Ukraine.

The social support specialist located another brother serving in the military, established a communication channel between the two sons and their mother, and through joint efforts, they persuaded her to evacuate with the disabled family member.

"In the near future, I will conduct a follow-up check to ensure this request has been fully resolved," shares Anna.

As for the serviceman who raised the issue, the support team directed him to prosthetics services and explained the entire process he would need to undergo.

Currently, the team is handling requests from servicemembers who have undergone high-level amputations. Due to prolonged treatment, defenders are forced to use wheelchairs. While they often reach out to local authorities to address accessibility issues, such requests frequently go unanswered. In such cases, the support specialists resubmit appeals to the community, requesting at least a ramp for the home, and monitor the process until the issue is resolved.

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