A few months after Baran (Mental First Aid) launched a service on WhatsApp, a spokesman for the association reveals that more than 8,000 inquiries were received through the popular widget, most of them young people.
According to Nadav Gal-On, about 50% of all applicants to the service are youth (17-13) and adolescents (18-28), 70% of the applications were received by girls / adolescent women, and the rest by boys / adolescents / men.
The association defined these two age groups as special risk groups following the threat of the corona plague.
"Since the epidemic broke out we have put the mental difficulties of adolescents at the center and looked for a way to make it easier for them to contact us because they have found themselves alone in dealing with the plague difficulties," Gal-On said.
The data, which is revealed on the occasion of the Israel Today's resilience conference to be held this coming Tuesday at the Zappa Midtown Club in Tel Aviv, show that additional issues of service included dealing with corona, trauma and loss (15%), dealing with violence and harm, including family and network ( 5%), studies and employment (5%) and suicide (5%).
Dr. Shiri Daniels, ARAN's Professional Director, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
Dr. Shiri Daniels, the professional director of ARN, explained that adolescents find it difficult to seek help because they develop their identity by denying the adult world and resisting it.
"Referring to WhatsApp does not create a threat to them because they are not identified, so they do not see it as an appeal to the adult world," she said.
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