HELPING CHILDREN DEAL WITH TRAUMA AT HADASSAH

Throughout the pandemic, Hadassah’s psychiatry unit has been full, with a six-month waiting list for new patients. Its day clinics have been at capacity, too, fielding 17,000 patients in 2021 and a months-long waiting list just to get an appointment.

At certain times during the pandemic, many interventions went remote, but “therapy via Zoom is challenging,” said Dr. Esti Galili-Weisstub, Head of Hadassah’s Herman Dana Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. “The value of sitting in the same room with a patient can’t be overstated.”

The pandemic has reinforced global connectedness around health care—something long internalised by HMO’s child and adolescent mental health specialists. “Israel is a global leader in teaching coping strategies to trauma victims,” Dr. Galili-Weisstub said.

As if pandemic lockdowns and shuttered schools were not enough, 13-year-old Meirav was hit by a car near her home in Jerusalem in the spring of 2021. Her injuries were minor but the emergency care physicians at the Hadassah Medical Organisation who first saw the pale and silent teen diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress and referred her for help.

“It was quickly clear that Meirav’s trauma was not related to her accident but to what was happening at home,” said Dr. Galili-Weisstub. Meirav, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, and her four siblings had spent the months of remote schooling largely confined to their small fourth-floor apartment, Dr. Galili-Weisstub explained. Their father had lost his hotel job when the tourists stopped coming. Frustrated and volatile, he had dominated the living room, leaving the television blaring all day.

Zoom therapy was not suitable for Meirav, so Dr. Fortunato Benarroch, director of the division’s Centre for Paediatric Traumatic Stress, treated Meirav and her family in person. He guided the mother in involving her children in meal preparations, emphasizing the importance of a family meal at least once a day, and helped the father recognize his impact on his children. The changes in the family dynamics, plus a return in September to in-person schooling, created marked improvement in Meirav’s mood.

”Whether the trauma they suffer is through plague, family tensions, terrorism or natural disaster, children try to give meaning to their experience and seek strength to come back to themselves,” said Dr. Galili-Weisstub. ”With its multiple approaches to overcoming trauma, Hadassah’s child and adolescent psychiatry division helps children find their way back to mental health.”

Editors Notes:

Excerpted from Wendy Elliman’s January 2022 article in Hadassah Magazine