Experiences Ursula

Ursula De Korte was in Ukraine last week, where she visited six hospitals participating in the Virtucare project — a remarkable initiative supporting healthcare workers in eight Ukrainian hospitals through online counseling.

“This week was one of the most intense and meaningful weeks of my professional life. The people I met, the stories I heard, the strength I witnessed — it will stay with me for a long time.”

Read more about her experiences below:

Last week, I traveled through Ukraine, together with our partners from Psylaris and the Ukrainian Institute of Traumatherapy. From Cherkasy to Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and back to Kyiv. We visited 6 out of the 8 hospitals within the Virtucare project where healthcare workers treat wounded civilians and soldiers every single day. People who have been working under unimaginable pressure for years now, their stress systems disrupted, their reserves running low, yet they keep showing up.

In Kharkiv, so close to the front line, the hospital staff told us something that really stuck with me: hardly anyone comes to visit them anymore. People are afraid to travel there. When we walked in, you could feel what our presence meant to them. That moment alone made the entire journey worth it. In Zaporizhzhia, 17 km from the front line, I stood in a hospital that serves as the second point of treatment for wounded soldiers; the first being a room with four beds in the trenches. The dedication of the people working there and in Cherkasy, Dnipro and Kyiv is beyond words.
And then, on day three of the trip, it happened: the first client made an appointment on our online counseling platform. Someone who needed support and reached out.

PsyGlobal is building this online counseling platform for the healthcare workers of Ukraine, the people behind the patients, who rarely get to be the ones asking for help. Knowing that they have a place where they can share their feelings and thoughts and just feel support.
This week has been one of the most intense and meaningful of my professional life. The people I met, the stories I heard, the strength I witnessed; it will stay with me for a long time. Thank you to everyone supporting this from a distance. We are making a difference. And we are just getting started.