Assisted living and social adaptation services help displaced Ukrainians live in dignity and comfort

As the war continues to force people from their homes across Ukraine, displaced families face challenges that go far beyond finding shelter. For older people and people with disabilities, many of whom requiring continuous care, displacement can quickly become life-threatening without access to appropriate social services and adapted living conditions.

Assisted living services provide a critical solution for people who cannot manage daily life independently due to their displacement. By combining safe accommodation, adapted infrastructure, and social support, these services help preserve dignity, reduce isolation, avert institutionalization risks and protect those at risk of being left behind due to displacement.

Ihor and his mother are from Horlivka in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. After the war first reached their region in 2014, they were displaced to Druzhkivka, where they spent many years and the place where Ihor came to consider his second home. With the escalation of the war in 2022, they were forced to flee once again — this time to Oleksandrivka, a rural settlement in Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine.

“We lived in Oleksandrivka for a year and a half, staying in a kindergarten that had been turned into a collective center. We were grateful that we were taken in, but there were absolutely no conditions for my mother. Providing the care she needs was incredibly difficult. It was one of the hardest periods of my life — and I’m sure of hers as well,” Ihor recalls.

However, one day, Ihor was informed by NGO representatives in the collective centre that he and his mother met the vulnerability criteria and could move to Truskavets in Lviv region, where specialized care and adapted conditions were available.

“Over three days, we drove more than 850 kilometers. Traveling across the country with a bedridden person was challenging journey. Without help, we would not have made it. We stopped multiple times at hospitals. I just needed some medical help for my mother, but doctors took us in for the night, fed us, and helped with everything possible,” Ihor recounts.

The family reached western Ukraine, where they were accommodated in Batkivshchyna sanatorium – a facility of the Ministry of Social Policy providing a package of social services for the most vulnerable among the displaced, including social accommodation, assisted living, facility-based care and social adaptation services. The innovative social adaptation pilot is particularly critical as it enables displaced people to transition to more independent living or to more stable care environments. The initiative supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and being implemented in several locations across Ukraine, thanks to the financial support from donors like the European Union.

“Here, my mother gets the support she so much needs to live the rest of her life in dignity. These special conditions are not just about comfort — they are essential to her health and survival.” Ihor says. “There is not constant shelling here, so no additional stress. We can finally sleep peacefully.”