Broadly speaking, the COVID-19 Mental Health Control and Psychosocial Support Program and the country’s national mental health strategy have four main objectives:

1. 1. Promote mental health and reduce the COVID-related stressors, including stigma and discrimination.
2. 2. Provide psychological support to quarantined people and their families, whether in hospitals or homes.
3. 3. Maintain the mental health of medical workers and emergency services.
4. 4. Ensure the continuity of psychiatric care for people with mental disorders.

In the conditions of an infopandemic the solution of a problem of protection of a society in information field should have complex system character and be carried out at various levels: regulatory, institutional and personal.

Patients with post-covid syndrome need specialized medical examination to establish a clinical and functional rehabilitation diagnosis.

Given the known etiopathogenesis of nervous system damage upon COVID-19, it is appropriate to consider this infection potentially neutrotropic, as SARS-CoV-2 virus has the ability to enter the CNS epineurally and through the blood-brain barrier, accompanied by its accumulation in brain structures, neuronal damage, glial and vascular reactions.

The consequences of complex nerve tissue damage are ischemic strokes, encephalitis and encephalopathy, which are accompanied by a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms, which are manifested at all stages of the disease, in particular – in the long course of infection (Long-COVID).

The treatment of nervous system damage in COVID-19 should be comprehensive and requires the joint efforts of neurologists, psychiatrists, and health care professionals.

To organize such events it is necessary to:

1. 1. Provide and organize the analysis of epidemiological indicators on the most common mental consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, etc.).
2. 2. Develop the treatment protocol taking into account pathopsychological personality changes due to coronavirus disease COVID-19 and stressors of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
3. 3. Scientifically substantiate the most effective directions of therapy and rehabilitation of mental disorders, the formation, course and clinical picture of which were influenced by coronavirus disease COVID-19 and stressors of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
4. 4. Identify sanogenic factors in the formation of mental disorders in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (socio-psychological, socio-economic).

Persons with SARS-CoV-2 require early involvement in medical and psychological clinical rehabilitation programs for faster and better recovery, improved quality of life, and reduced risk of disability.

In order to strengthen the mental health of the population of Ukraine during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it is necessary to identify high-risk groups, improve screening and be sure to conduct psycho-correctional, rehabilitation and psychotherapeutic work in their comprehensive treatment.

Development and approval of training programs for training and retraining of specialists on the problem of SARS-CoV-2 and post-covid complications that meet the qualification requirements and professional standards; conducting advanced training courses for psychiatrists, cardiologists, neurologists, psychotherapists, psychologists.

For the effective implementation of psychiatric services by profile specialists (psychiatrists, psychotherapists, medical psychologists) using the existing facilities of medical institutions, we offer the use of the following algorithm of actions:

1. a) information search of thematic “COVID-groups” in social network messengers; information and reference websites of medical and psychological content; information resources of communal medical institutions; private medical institutions, etc.;
2. b) publication of analytical reports on the current state of the problem of mental disorders and disorders due to COVID-infection with the description of the clinical and psychopathological picture (symptoms);
3. c) dissemination of contact information of specialists who provide medical and psychological assistance with the use, including telemedicine;
4. d) publication of interviews with specialists of the relevant profile in the information space (social networks, web resources, etc.);
5. e) operative preparation of methodical recommendations on early diagnosis and treatment of patients with COVID-anamnesis with mental disorders and disorders based by the results of relevant clinical trials; implementation of such recommendations in the practice of family doctors.

While ensuring access for all those in need to medical and social services, special attention should be paid to vulnerable groups. To do this, it is also important to facilitate the reform of the medical system, to create clear reforming algorithms from the ministry to the ordinary hospital. Here the organization of dialogue processes between different links will be effective.

Strengthening cooperation between the public and non-governmental sectors plays a significant role in launching and maintaining dialogue processes. The non-governmental sector is a place for testing innovative models, as well as advocating for the needs of vulnerable groups.

It is extremely important to remember that the pandemic is not a purely administrative problem, by its very nature it is a crisis in which scientists have a decisive say. Therefore, the strengthening of interaction with the scientific community is needed by public administration bodies, medical institutions, and socially oriented institutions today. There should be a request for research from the authorities and an adequate response to the recommendations provided, with their consistent and immediate implementation.

By commission of the participants of the Round Table,

President of Charitable Foundation “Blue Bird”            Ganna Buiadzhy