Continuity of opiate substitution treatment
Opiate substitution treatment in Ukraine requires showing up at the clinic every day
When a patient is hospitalized at another medical facility, he no longer has access to OST
Only a few cities in Ukraine have a functioning system of delivering OST to a patient in the hospital
In all other cases, OST patients are forced to choose between treating their addiction and treating their TB, pneumonia...
What would you choose?
Igor. Spleen
I am an OST patient
in the city of Donetsk.
I got into a car accident
and had my spleen removed.
I had to leave the intensive care unit
and come to the OST clinic every day.
At the end, my stitches came apart
and I had to get stitched up all over again.
And it's not just me, most of the patients
have to weather their illnesses on their feet -
all because if hospitalized,
they won't be able to come
to the OST clinic for their medication.
Lena. Gangrene
I have gangrene of the shin bone.
I have very large wounds,
I need skin grafting.
They removed my phlegmon
but because of à bacterial infection
I now need to have the skin necrosis removed.
Then the skin needs heal again.
Soon I'll have to go in for surgery.
I don't know how I'm going to come
to the OST clinic. It's really challenging...
really hard.
Because I won't be able
to get OST in the hospital,
I've been putting off the surgery.
And if I keep putting it off,
they will have to cut off my leg.
We are all mortal
In order for this to work,
we have to realize that
this is the reality of our lives.
Decision-makers at various levels need
to be thinking about it.
If we are talking about a life-saving measure,
it will happen sooner or later.
However, the patients need it
to happen today, now.
Every person is mortal.
"We are going to solve this problem"
Of all the people I know how important
is this issue with continuity of OST in hospitals.
OST patients have many chronic conditions
and very serious opportunistic infections.
Because of this,
lots of people have already passed away
since the program had started.
To solve this issue
we are primarily relying on ourselves.
Because no one else seems to care.
We are the only ones who care.
This is our problem,
we know it inside out and we are going to solve it.
Any OST program has to have a functioning system for delivering buprenorphine and methadone to OST patients in the hospitals.
Help us solve this problem
Start working with us
Don't let us die.
Continuety of opiate substitution treatment