"We are in a national emergency in mental health and facing a huge wave of inquiries due to mental distress, especially among children and adolescents," Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said today (Wednesday) at the presentation of the national program for mental health crisis among children and adolescents.
The program will include, among other things, an extension of the hours of educational counseling in schools, the integration of social workers to assist the school staff, and the strengthening of the mental response to students in the afternoons in designated centers.
The plan will be spread over five years, with a total cost of NIS 914 million, and will consist of two phases: an emergency plan for immediate implementation at a cost of NIS 228 million, and a long-term plan that will expand the infrastructure and manpower.
The plan was formulated by two emergency teams appointed by Minister Horowitz - in collaboration with Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Bitton and Minister of Welfare and Social Security Meir Cohen - in light of a wave of mental distress and a significant lack of therapeutic responses and therapeutic sequence in mental health.
Ministers accepted the teams' conclusions and adopted the principles of the plan which includes recommendations for the immediate term, for long-term solutions, and for building a plan that will ensure the quality of care for years to come.
The ministers intend to address the prime minister and the finance minister with a view to soon igniting the plan at a cabinet meeting.
"The action plan we will bring to the government will provide immediate and long-term solutions to deal with the severe crisis," said Minister Horowitz. "That's right. We must not take this matter lightly. We must act now, and that is what we will do."
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