Today (Tuesday) hundreds of teenagers went up to the Knesset, where they marched for the destruction of stigmas towards people with mental illness and receiving a therapeutic response in the community.
The march was led by mentally challenged youths from the "Amitim" programs of the community center society.
The event will continue in the Knesset with a conference on the subject.
The initiative in collaboration with Deputy Minister of Finance MK Michal Waldiger, which works for change in the field of torture for mentally challenged people. Research data from the Joint shows that close to 60,000 teenagers in the State of Israel face a significant mental difficulty that affects their daily functioning. According
to H of the Knesset's Research and Information Center, approximately 13,000 boys receive services each year at mental health centers, inpatient wards and post-hospital boarding schools.
Teenagers // Photo: GettyImages (illustration),
Unlike adults, who are entitled to a rehabilitation basket (the 2000 Rehabilitation of the Mentally Handicapped in the Community Law), children and youths who face mental difficulties are not entitled to these services at all except for the right to appropriate integration in the education system. These youths experience significant difficulties in social and community integration, they return to their
homes After school hours and during the long vacations, they are left alone and with no answer at all. Today, the only answer that exists for them is through the "Peers" programs of the Community Centers Society and the Ministry of Health, including the "Peers for Youth" program, which gives them a shell of support in the community, but its hand is too short to contain.
The program only operates in six settlements and only caters to 120 youths out of tens of thousands of youths who need it throughout the country.
"The most difficult feeling is loneliness," says Hanan Bordati, 20, a Kishori student who shares: "The most significant difficulty is during vacations from the educational frameworks.
It's empty time that makes me angry, makes me lonely, depressed and has difficulty communicating, I've always come to vacations in fear because I don't leave the room.
I just don't go out for anything, not even to the balcony at home, I just lock myself in my room and have no one to talk to.'
"Our main message in the march is that we are tired of falling through the cracks, we are not mature enough to receive a rehabilitation solution, but the number of young people who face mental difficulties is only increasing. We are alone, without social interaction, without activity, without rights and without support. The disease Ours may be transparent, but we don't want to be transparent anymore, it's time to take off the masks and stop being ashamed."
Deputy Minister of Finance MK Michal Waldiger: "The need for torture for teenagers who are dealing with a mental disability is acute.
These frameworks save lives, give hope along with simple understanding, those facing a mental disability are like the rest of us and should be helped.
The Youth Fellows Program of the Community Centers Association does sacred work in creating necessary leisure frameworks for those who are also faced with loneliness and difficulty in making connections.
This conference will increase public awareness, but it won't matter to me, I will continue and do my best for the world of mental health."
MK Michal Waldiger, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Tal Basachs, CEO of the Society for Community Centers adds and says: "Youths who are dealing with a mental disability need support and an envelope of tormentors in the community, and the peer programs that operate in the Society for Community Centers with the Ministry of Health are a necessary anchor in their rehabilitation process."
"Peers" are national programs shared with the National Community Centers and the Ministry of Health. Three peer programs strengthen community resilience by promoting integration into the community of adults and teenagers facing mental disabilities and making information about rights in mental health accessible, alongside promoting the reduction of stigma and changing attitudes, through meeting groups integrated, integrated community projects, workshops, outreach events and social media activity.
The parade was held today at 1:00 p.m., from the Cinema City intersection to the Knesset, with a conference on the mental health of children and teenagers following. At the beginning of the conference, the Deputy Minister announced: The conference was organized long ago Today I am happy to say: You have a promise to continue the activity. We obtained for you about two million shekels which will be the basis of the budget. You do not have to fight the bureaucracy anymore. We have seen you.
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