The concern: a severe shortage of special education therapists Israel today

The school year of the Special Education Program will open in less than a month, and while everyone is talking about the lack of teachers in general education and assistants in special education, it turns out that there is also a serious shortage of the paramedical teams and emotional therapists integrated in the special education kindergartens as part of the TBM basket (promoting health care) provided by the ministry the health

The shortage has existed for years, but this year it has grown even more, among other things due to the increase in the proportion of children diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, which leads to an increase in the demand for emotional and paramedical teams.

If in the past 1 out of every 200 children was diagnosed with the sequence, today 1 out of every 65 children is diagnosed as such.

In the "Center for Research and Treatment of Autism - the Association for Children at Risk", which provides TBM services to more than 300 special education kindergartens, a shortage of 600 standards is reported. In the public sector there is a shortage of 1,500 standards. The main reason is that the salary is not rewarding and therefore many professionals choose to work privately. Accordingly, it appears that in the 2018 school year there will be no preschool services at all in the 110 special education kindergartens, out of the 870 that exist. In hundreds of other kindergartens, parents were informed about the reduction of services in the coming year.

It seems that the ones who will mainly pay the price are the children from the periphery.

It is true that children who do not receive TBM are entitled to treatments through the health insurance funds, but the parents report long waits for appointments, treatments that take place in areas far from their place of residence and at late hours when the children have difficulty cooperating. Early and therapeutic intervention until the age of 6 are critical for a child on the autistic continuum and for his integration into society.

Marina, a resident of Ashkelon and a single mother of 5-year-old Matan, who is on the autistic spectrum, says, for example: "Matan still doesn't speak, he hasn't even said 'mother' yet. Since he entered the special education kindergarten, I feel the great change that has taken place In it. We don't know if next year we will have a speech therapist and an occupational clinic in kindergarten. Before he entered kindergarten, I took him after daycare for private treatment with a speech therapist in Tel Aviv, because there were no appointments in Ashkelon. He had trouble cooperating, and we had to stop."

A letter sent last week to the Ministry of Health on behalf of associations and organizations dealing with the issue reads: "The crisis is creating a reality of a wild market in excessive wage offers for beginning caregivers, along with a violation of ethical principles and a lack of regulation. The children's parents are kneeling under the burden and experiencing frustration, when the treatments they were promised by law and may overwhelm the The future of their children - canceled or reduced in light of the manpower crisis. We warn that there is a real danger to the services in the coming year, which will not be able to be fully opened within the existing frameworks."

Attorney Tzipi Nagel Edelstein, CEO of the Center for Autism Research and Treatment, said: "If the state does not understand the scope of the problem and take effective measures, this will lead to direct harm to children and their families."

The Ministry of Health responded: "We are aware of the shortage of caregivers. The Ministry is a partner in formulating solutions to the problem together with the relevant government ministries. Senior officials of the Ministry are meeting with directors of associations in the field of autism to hear about the situation as they experience it. We will continue to be open to dialogue to improve the situation."

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