In December 2021, a young family — a mother, a father with a 3-year-old child — contacted the specialists of the city center of social services in Bakhmut. The father lost his job, and the employment center suggested that he seek help from the center of social services. They also needed social services for the child — renewal of the child’s lost birth certificate and obtaining an identification code.

And since 2018, on the basis of this center, the NGO "Social Initiatives for Occupational Safety and Health" has been implementing the project "You Should Know About Tuberculosis."

Therefore, when during the consultation, the LHSI social worker accidentally learned that the family had a neighbor who had served time in prison and returned home a year ago, she immediately suggested that they undergo a screening survey for tuberculosis (TB). Everything turned out well for the parents, however, during the evaluation of the result of the Mantoux test, a positive test was detected in the child, i.e. an increase in the diameter of the papule compared to the result of the previous test. The child was referred to a family doctor, who in turn sent him to a tuberculosis specialist, who prescribed a course of preventive treatment for LTBI.

The family was taken under the care of an LHSI social worker.

With the beginning of the full-scale attack, the family was able to leave the city of Bakhmut and ended up in the city of Dnipro. They still had medications to continue the treatment of LTBI, but at the end of January 2023 they ran out. They did not know who to contact for a prescription for the medication, so the mother came to the hub for displaced people. Here she met a social specialist, Marina, who provided social support in the city of Bakhmut. There was no limit to the joy. Marina helped to get medication in Dnipro to complete the three-month course of LTBI, the child successfully completed the preventive course.

Unfortunately, it was very difficult for my father to get a job, a social worker helped him arrange IDP payments and re-register with a family doctor.

The family lived on meager IDP benefits in a social hostel (modular town) until the end of 2023, and it became clear that without work in the winter it would be difficult, so they decided to go to Kyiv, where their father was offered a job. And he is better protected by the PVO. On the advice of Maryna in Kyiv, they also turned to the hub, where a social worker from LHSI consulted, who suggested that they undergo a fluorography examination.

The adults underwent a diagnostic examination for TB, and the child received a doctor's consultation. After the examination, this time the mother was diagnosed with TB. She received an appointment from a TB doctor and underwent a course of treatment. Social workers supported the family and helped the father during the woman's treatment in the hospital for two weeks, and also helped arrange for the child to go to kindergarten so that the father could continue to go to work while the mother was being treated in the hospital.

Thus, LHSI social workers from different regions of Ukraine contributed to preserving the health of the family.