The IDF began recruiting young people with mental health problems, who had previously been exempted from military service due to mental health problems.
The young people, who express a desire to enlist in the IDF, carry out 01 training near their homes, and will not be allowed to possess weapons for their safety and the safety of their environment.
The new program is called the "Competence Range," in which the army recruited 69 soldiers last July, and another 83 in November.
About 123 more young people are expected to enlist in the program in January, although the number is not final.
It should be noted that these are soldiers who express a desire to enlist in the army, and not those who are forced by the army to enlist despite the shortcomings from which they suffer.
Every soldier with a mental disability who wants to enlist in the IDF will be diagnosed. Some of the soldiers who enlist in the program suffer from anxiety, some have tried to commit suicide in the past and others face diagnosed mental problems. The army closely monitors those soldiers So far, about five months since the program began, none of these soldiers have been discharged from the IDF.
Chief of Staff Kochavi's visit to the recruitment bureau // Archive photo: IDF Spokesman
The soldiers who enlist in the program will, as mentioned, perform weapons-free training, both so that they do not pose a danger to themselves and their environment, and also because for some of them the problem that prevented them from enlisting is the inability to possess weapons.
Recruits under the program will be considered regular soldiers, not volunteers, although they will have a mental disability clause.
The IDF explains that the program is intended to give those soldiers the opportunity to serve in the army despite their mental problems. There has been a slight decrease in the number of soldiers receiving exemption from service for mental reasons.
The "Fitness Range" program joins another program we recently unveiled in "Israel Today", in which the IDF recruits young people on the high-functioning autistic continuum. Last July, the army recruited 53 young people on the autistic continuum, and in December the army intends to recruit 54 boys and six girls on the continuum .
The recruitment of the young people on the autistic continuum came after several months of work in the Planning and Personnel Division of the IDF Personnel Division. successful.
As part of the preparations for the move, the bodies in charge of this in the IDF met with the greatest experts in the field, and then, a customized recruitment and mentoring program was built for these young people.
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