Israel’s mental health is “very challenging,” said Efrat Shaprut, CEO of Natal -Israeli trauma and elasticity center. Jerusalem Post.
“October 7 met a public system that was not represented. There was not enough therapist, there was not enough treatment protocol, and there was no preparation for this scale, especially in the previous crisis.”
“Despite Israel’s experience in trauma from war and terrorism, we have never faced this scale’s incident in terms of numbers and events.”
SHAPRUT explained that the covid-19 crisis and judicial reform contributed to the current situation where there was a big difference between the current service demand and the possibility of use.
She said, “Israel’s mental health system has long been a brush child of the health care system and lacks sufficient financial and professional resources.
SHAPRUT emphasized the complexity of the situation, saying, “The country’s mental health care experts deal with civilians who have experienced soldiers, killing, kidnapping, and destroying the community for more than a year, and made a national Truma with most missile attacks.
“There is a tremendous pressure due to the seriousness of the case, the influenced number and the limited mental health infrastructure.”
Shaprut added that the number of cases and its intensity became unprecedented.
“We meet a family who is killed, kidnapped or in charge of preliminary obligations. This rare combination is almost unprecedented, and there is almost no treatment protocol for multiple overlapping trauma and (especially the robbery) worldwide. ”
Another source of complexity is that mental health experts are personally called “shared reality” by the tragedy and crisis of October 7.
“They are also living through these traumatic events and being stressed, and many people have personal relationships with victims, such as individuals, survivors, people who are murdered on October 7, or displaced families. Others have loved ones who serve in battle, ”she said.
“This is very difficult for a service provider to function effectively.”
Status response
Shaprut explained that the country’s response is not sufficient. “I understand the problem, but the Ministry of Health recognizes complexity and has a program. In fact, it took a few weeks to start adjustment, and it is still behind a lot. ”
SHAPRUT added that from October 7, there was an insufficient response to the waiting list of treatment to deal with suicide, addiction and domestic violence, insufficient patient facilities and suicide, addiction and domestic violence.
“It is especially clear that more funding should be assigned to mental health,” she said. “In particular, when we plan a budget that will be a marathon and strategically allocates, we must allocate many people to bring many people to public services.
“It would be very difficult to provide the necessary intervention without a significant reform of wage contracts, budget allocation for national programs and significant reforms for long -term plans.
“It was necessary to focus on strengthening trauma -related training and elasticity, and it turned out to be lacking in the outbreak of war, and the NGO, which is mainly dependent on charity, has provided the majority of community mental health services since October 7.
Shaprut talked about the services provided by NATAL, and many people who contacted the organization to ask for help were the survivors of the massacre of Nova Festival, Evacuees, Soldiers and Reservists. Our helprine was held from 6:30 am. Since then, more than 70,000 people have been received and more than 4,000 individuals have been treated at clinical units. ”
“We supported them through this crisis by providing tens of thousands of hours of elasticity to the first respondents, such as paramedics, social workers, doctors, nurses, forensic pathology, and burial workers.”
Shaprut emphasized that the reserve army said, “It is important to remember that civilians are rooted in long -term wars in their lives and homes, leaving their families, occupations and communities. They experienced tremendous sorrow, severe violence and loss of many friends. ”
After their duty, they face the conversion shap trout, which is a difficult task of returning home, a tremendous difficult at the family, economic and psychological levels.
NATAL offers a variety of services for reserve groups, including group treatment, elastic buildings and personal support.
It also offers a variety of services to everyone who needs help, including a variety of types of treatment sessions for helping, individuals, couples and groups.
The organization also offers thousands of hours of workshops to strengthen mental health professionals and emergency response.
