Israel’s preparedness to care for its citizens’ mental health in time of emergencies is lacking, according to the State Comptroller’s Report released on Tuesday.
Since 2018, the number of mental-health clinics in the country run by the four healthcare providers decreased by 33%. The state comptroller asked the authorities to work on improving both the long-term service and the short-term response in times of high levels of stress, which Israel has been going through in the past week.
Between 2017 and 2019, 14,000 people suffering from anxiety were treated in dedicated centers, while another 4,700 patients were treated as part of the National Insurance Institute program.
Only 30 municipalities in the country out of 257 offer a mental-health clinic run by one of the four healthcare providers, the report said. Following a Health Ministry decision, the number of such centers has been reduced from 75 to 50 since 2018.
In addition to the mental-health clinics, the ministry runs 11 resilience centers, the majority of which are in the South, and offers an opportunity for mental support in case of emergency situations, such as the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza.
The budget in 2019 was NIS 18 million, but the government did not include a budget for the resilience centers in 2020.
“This fact causes uncertainty in the operation of the resilience centers and their financial management and even raises concerns about their closure,” the report said.
The vast majority of those suffering from anxiety disorders whose care was publicly funded lived in the South. Some 5%-8% of the residents of Sderot and the Eshkol region in the northwest Negev received some form of treatment, the report said.
The comptroller also highlighted a lack of an adequate emergency mental-health service for anxiety victims in the North.
In case of an emergency situation, some 25 people will suffer from anxiety for every person who is injured physically, and in the event of war, the number of victims of stress is likely to amount to several thousands, the report said.
The Health Ministry is responsible for treating people who suffer from anxiety disorders, and it elaborated a five-point strategy in 2018 to do so. But significant gaps remain, the report said.
In addition to the lack of mental-health centers, there was a lack of adequate staff at the existing structures, with a limited number of psychotherapists available, the report said.
“Optimal preparedness for the treatment of victims of anxiety during emergencies is based primarily on the existence of a national strategy for strengthening social resilience, which is intended to reduce the number of those in need of treatment,” State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said in the report. “Action must be taken to promote and implement the relevant programs.”
He asked the Health Ministry to cooperate with the local authorities to implement a comprehensive therapeutic response for victims of anxiety disorders following emergency situations.
“In the shadow of the difficult security events that have befallen our country this past week, the need to examine the reinforcement of the treatment system during this period intensifies, as well as to make the necessary adjustments for the treatment of at-risk population groups,” Englman said.