A group of Ukrainian health professionals who are working to reform their country’s healthcare system will be at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Friday, Sept. 14, to speak on “Public Health in Ukraine.”

The talk will take place from 9-10 a.m. in Dickinson Hall’s sixth-floor conference room and is free and open to the public.

Members of the international delegation, which includes four physicians and one lawyer, accompanied by a bicultural facilitator and a bilingual interpreter, are guests of the U.S. Legislature’s Open World Leadership Center and are hosted by Global Ties Arkansas, a nonprofit which contracts with the federal government to bring international delegates to Little Rock for professional training.

Dr. Janea Snyder, assistant professor in the College of Education and Health Professions, and Heidi Whitman, program officer for Global Ties Arkansas, arranged Friday’s event as a way for local health care students and professionals to connect with the Ukrainian group. The discussion will center on challenges and solutions for public health problems common to all industrialized nations, such as HIV, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Prior to their arrival in Little Rock, the delegates completed an orientation in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill and had policy meetings with staff from the offices of Rep. French Hill and Sen. John Boozman.

In Little Rock, delegates will collaborate on best practices for drafting effective healthcare policy, providing sufficient services for veterans, reforming primary and emergency care, and introducing medical insurance to citizens.

The group also will have professional meetings at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Eugene J. Tobin Healthcare Center, AFMC, Pulaski County Crisis Stabilization Unit, and Conway Regional Hospital.

The delegation is staying in the homes of area residents serving as hospitality hosts, including the home of Jim Carr, associate professor of construction management at UA Little Rock, and his wife, Toni Carr, the executive director of Global Ties Arkansas. Others are staying with Terry Richard, professor emeritus of sociology at UA Little Rock.