The Ministry of Health is currently formulating for the first time a comprehensive national emergency plan for the treatment of mental health and the distress of children and youth.
The move comes in the face of the sharp rise in referrals of children and teens to mental health services, including psychiatric hospitalization and HMO treatments.
According to unofficial data from psychiatric hospitals and health funds, there has been an increase of up to 40% since the corona epidemic in applications from children and adolescents who are in severe distress and need psychological treatment and support. The existence of the new national program was revealed yesterday by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz in an interview with the undersigned at the "Israel Today" conference that dealt with the mental health and mental resilience of youth.
Horowitz added that the national emergency plan will be presented to the government, and it will include all government ministries related to the issue, including the ministries of health, education and welfare, noting that it has not yet been budgeted.
"Israel Today" has learned more details about the program, which are revealed here for the first time: In the management of the Ministry of Health, initial discussions have already taken place in which preliminary data were presented on the growing mental distress of children and adolescents, also due to the corona. Alongside this, some of the components of the new program were presented, which will also include new mental health services that did not exist until now in Israel. One of them: the establishment of about ten crisis intervention centers that will provide primary care to children who need it urgently, but can continue to stay at home and do not need immediate hospitalization.
According to people close to Minister Horowitz, this vital service can be launched immediately in cooperation with hospitals and health funds.
According to them, this is an initiative of the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Medical Association, whose heads met with the Minister of Health last week and presented their plan.
It was also learned that as part of the national emergency program, grants and scholarships will be given to child psychiatrists and psychologists, additional funding for HMOs in this area and also expanding cooperation with youth movements and training them to prevent suicide and identify mental distress.
The conference was held in Tel Aviv. Many people from the field of mental health and outside participated, Photo: Gideon Markovich
Children and youth in focus
The national plan was formulated by Horowitz also following his visit back in August this year to the government psychiatric hospital "Merhavim" in Ness Ziona. "Merhavim" has become the first ever in Israel, and among the few in the world, that deals exclusively with children, teenagers and young people. During the visit, Prof. Hilik Lebkowitz, director of Merhavim, presented the data on the sharp increase of up to 40% in emergency room applications for children and youth following the corona, the need for a massive increase in hospitalization and care for children and adolescents and the urgent need to recruit psychiatrists and encourage specialization.
Dr. Zvi Fischel, chairman of the National Mental Health Council at the Ministry of Health said yesterday that "an emergency plan for child and adolescent psychiatry is essential and welcome. The unavailability of psychiatrists and other caregivers leads to an unbearable state of very long waiting times. However it is important to allocate a budget. "It is appropriate to bring in new employees, and leave the young psychiatrists the expert in the public system. The promises and plans of the Ministry of Health must be carried out in order to bring relief to the severe mental distress in children, adolescents and also adults."
"Infrastructure for another dish"
In the interview, Horowitz referred, for the first time, to the real possibility of a decision to give a fourth dose of corona vaccine to the entire population in Israel, also against the background of the fear of the new strain.
"As for the fourth vaccine, we may be on the way. I do not know yet," the health minister said.
"The decision to give the third booster was a success, and it saved a lot of people in Israel. Look what is happening now in Russia and Germany. A fourth vaccine will be given if there is an indication of a decrease in immunity - and there is currently no information about that. The doctors and not the politicians, not even the prime minister. "
Senior doctors who spoke with "Israel Today" said they had no doubt that the Minister of Health was now preparing the ground for a possible decision by the Ministry of Health to back the Prime Minister to give a fourth vaccine to Corona, similar to the decision to give the third booster before US and European health authorities. A decision reviewed worldwide.
"I am happy about the Israel Today conference, which causes the public to engage in mental health, which is the backyard of society," Horowitz added at the conference.
"Until now, the mental contestants were kept away and did not want to engage with them - and I am happy to emphasize this. In the Ministry of Health's budget, mental health is the highest priority, and it was not a simple decision. It is clearly too little, the whole health budget is too little."
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