The president visited Geha Psychiatric Hospital today and met with children being treated there • "We in the general public are unaware of the damage the corona is doing to the psyche," he said
"If you experience mental difficulty, do not keep it in your stomach"
Photography:
Kobi Gideon, GPO
President Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin visited the Geha Mental Health Center today (Tuesday).
He was accompanied by Clalit chairman Yohanan Locker and the hospital's director, Prof. Gil Salzman. This is the first visit in the country's history of an incumbent president to a psychiatric hospital.
The president met with a group of children of all ages and had a candid conversation with them.
Share with the President the hardships they have experienced and the society's attitude towards them and explain at length how the care they receive helps them return to life.
"The visit here and the meeting with children and teenagers, who are already called the Corona generation - is shaky," the president said, adding: "It is impossible to remain indifferent to distress, suffering and pain. We in the general public are unaware of the damage the corona does to the soul. For children, for the elderly, for adults, for our psyche, for all of us. It is clear that if we had tests of a pen for the psyche, we could clearly see the damage of the plague and the plagues beside it: the plague of loneliness, the plague of uncertainty. "Quiet and transparent. And this epidemic has a mental price, a heavy price. A price that can cost human lives, and certainly affects our health."
"We need to be given a hand"
"I came because of the depression and anxiety I was dealing with," the 14-year-old president told M.
"I felt I was disappointing my parents, that I was a failure. Then I heard a voice instructing me to commit suicide, a voice I do not know. When I came for treatment here at the hospital I realized it was a psychotic attack. "Pills given to me by my psychiatrist, after I stopped going to school. Now I also study here and after school go home. Only in this way can I maintain a routine."
The 12-year-old R. told the president about the feeling of loneliness she experiences when no one understands her plight.
"I'm here because of depression, suicide and social anxiety. A suicidal person is a person who feels he has no more hope, that he is unable to lift himself up," she said.
"I tried to hurt myself. I felt completely alone, that no one understood me. There is something in society that makes us feel it's wrong to feel that way. That if you feel that way you are hurt. People did not really understand what that means and it was very difficult to help me. Our arrival here "Perceived as problematic or abnormal, society does not accept it and it makes us feel even more alone. We need to be given a hand and let us understand that it is okay, because only in this way will we get the treatment we need."
The president stressed: "Mental distress is a phenomenon that crosses sectors and populations. No one should be ashamed if they have a mental difficulty. If you or you feel a mental difficulty, do not keep it in your stomach. Do not wait for it to develop into a distress. Talk, share, consult, with friends "Family members, mental health professionals, social workers, family doctors. Do not hide and do not hide, and especially do not be ashamed."