PASTORAL ACTIVITIES CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE IN WESTERN UKRAINE (LATE XIX - 40'S YEARS.)

Abstract

The Ukrainian clergy took an active part in the healthcare movement of Ukraine. Ukrainian priests were a key factor in upgrading and improving public medical care system (sanitary-hygienic movement, movement of sobriety, healthcare, «body-building», etc). As a part of Ukrainian Hygiene Society (UHS), they contributed to the preservation of the gene pool of the Ukrainian people, which is an important factor in the formation of mass knowledge on the basics of hygiene and sanitation, prevention of morbidity, primarily tuberculosis, healthy lifestyle promotion among children and adults in Western Ukraine.

The system of medical and prophylactic services (dispensaries, outpatient clinics, hospitals, laboratories) and advisory («poradni») establishments proved to be effective and meaningful, since they provided the opportunity to receive free or at affordable price medical assistance for the most vulnerable groups, in particular veterans of the national liberation struggle, widows, orphans, peasants, as well as teachers, students, etc. Significant achievements in the development of hygienic education and culture formation of health preservation in Ukrainian schools were manifested, by clergymen in particular, in the introduction of the educational subject «Hygiene» and relevant content oriented scientific and methodological support, in particular, the study book, etc. The development of this activity contributed to the priests and educators, who created art works and teaching aids, which expanded the amount of knowledge on healthcare issues. The anti-alcoholic movement was of a high level of development, the main forms, directions and means of which were: educational and propaganda work (lectures, courses, «misiachnyky» and «days of sobriety», «Vidrodzhennia» holidays, other anti-alcohol public initiatives); distribution of the printed word (public magazines, scientific popular and special «anti-alcoholic» literature: reading books, collections of poetry, dramatic works, etc.). In the 1940s by the level of anti-alcohol propaganda Western Ukraine occupied one of the prominent places in Eastern Europe.