Department of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology

In 1990, there had been created a course on psychotherapy at the Department of Psychiatry, which had been reorganized into the Department of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology at the 10th Clinical Hospital in 1992. The first head of the Department of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology was professor V.T.Kondrashenko. The clinical base of the department was psychoneurological unit for 60 beds at the 10th Clinical Hospital.

The Department of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology is based at the 10th Minsk Clinical Hospital. The clinical base is a psychiatry unit of the hospital.

The main researches carried out at the department:

• The research work «To develop the methods of psychotherapeutic correction of psychopathological disorders of somatic, neurological diseases».

All specialists of the department carry out research works. There have been defended 18 Candidate’s theses, and 2 thesis works on actual problems of psychotherapy, psychosomatics and psychology:

Sergei Davidovsky – participation in the research work «To study molecular and genetic predictors of suicidal behavior aiming at the development of diagnostic criteria of the high risk of suicide» of the program «Fundamental and applied sciences of medicine» for the years 2016-2020.

Sergei Davidovsky - participation in the research work «To develop the method of risk diagnostics of premeditated self-harm on the basis of complex analysis of social and psychological factors and molecular-biological markers».

Andrei Erema – the research work «Clinical and social-psychological aspects of adherence to in case of diabetes mellitus of the 2nd type».

The department has prepared 284 clinical residents and 8 PhD students.

Specialists of the department are authors of 64 educational guides, 812 scientific works, 45 instructions being approved by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus and etc.

Annually, specialists of the department participate in scientific conferences. The departments has organized and hold 53 city and 28 republican scientific and practical conferences with international participation, 54 scientific and practical seminars.
Irina Baikova, head of the department, being a chief expert in psychotherapy and psychology of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, actively participates in the work and organization of psychotherapeutic care in the Republic of Belarus. Irina Baikova is a member of the Expert Board on Psychotherapy of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, a chairwoman of the Republican Attestation Commission on psychology and psychotherapy.

The academic work of the department is carried out in accordance with the advanced training and retraining programs on psychotherapy and medical psychology.

Under the supervision of Irina Baikova, specialists of the department have prepared educational advanced training and retraining programs, also educational programs for clinical residents.

Specialists of the department are authors of 109 educational guides and instructions for use. They have prepared new questions and included them into the test exams on medical psychology; also, they changed some questions of the exam test on psychotherapy.

The forms of classes at the department: lectures, practical sessions with the demonstration of different psychotherapeutic technologies, different types of seminars, abstracts, following of patients and application of their case histories at conferences, final control in the form of the interview  and test programs.

There are three types of tests applied at the department: preliminary tests, level tests and final tests. Special tests and training programs are widely used in the training process.

One of the target of the department is to attract attention of healthcare organizers, physicians of therapy and other specialties to the possibilities of implementation of psychotherapeutic technologies, native and foreign psychopharmacotherapy into the medical practice.

Specialists of the department provide treatment and advisory work to all citizens of the Republic of Belarus, who require psychotherapeutic care, in the most complicated cases.

Specialists of the department constantly promote healthy way of life, inform the population about the importance of the prophylaxis of neuropsychic disorders through mass media.

The methods, types and contents of the educational process are actively discussed by listeners. Anonymous questionnaires help to sum up the results, which also reveal the satisfaction with lecturers and etc. Listeners’ suggestions and proposals are taken into consideration during the training.