British Ambassador Visits SMC and Sderot Trauma Facilities

#British Ambassador, #Tom Phillips, #trauma center, #sderot media center, #Gaza, #humanitarian crises, #Hamas, #Sderot, #rockets, #qassam

By: Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
www.SderotMedia.org.il

Ambassador Tom Phillips visits Sderot trauma facilities on verge of financial collapse

In light of the financial collapse facing Sderot’s trauma facilities, Sderot Media Center invited British Ambassador Tom Phillips to visit with Sderot psychologists on Thursday, June 4 to receive an in-depth overview of the crisis.

The Ambassador first visited Sderot Media Center to learn more of the organization’s ‘citizen journalism’ and its social media activities on behalf of the Sderot community. Following the visit to the media center, Ambassador Phillips met with the heads of the Sderot Trauma Center and the Shock Treatment Center where he learned of the vital role that the trauma facilities play in rehabilitating the residents of the rocket-torn community.



As much of the world tuned into US Barack Obama’s monumental speech in Cairo, Ambassador Phillips heard the impassioned speeches of Sderot Trauma Center’s director, Dalia Yosef and the head of Shock Treatment Center, Dr. Adrianna Katz.
The directors of the trauma facilities reported that lack of funding will force both trauma centers to close down by December 2009.

Dr. Katz explained that the Shock Treatment Center was opened three years ago to provide immediate treatment to Sderot victims who experience shock after a Qassam attack. Inside the shock center, the Ambassador viewed the small room where shock patients are treated, which must cram as many as fifty patients at a time.

When told of the recent rocket that struck a Sderot residential neighborhood and sent eight people into shock, the Ambassador asked how PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) victims could be treated in an environment where there was no post to the rocket attacks.

"It is a big problem and a question that we have yet to answer," responded Dr. Katz. "Following the recent rocket attack in May, there have been over 60 new requests for treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center." Dr. Katz, who also directs the Sderot Mental Health Center, said that out of the 6,000 patient files, over half involve post trauma cases.

"The closing of the shock center will mean that Sderot shock victims will have to be transported 20 minutes away to Ashkelon’s Barzilai, which was the standard procedure before the Sderot center was opened three years ago," Dr. Katz added.


At the Sderot Trauma Center, Ambassador Phillips met with the director, Dalia Yosef, who explained that the trauma center, also known as the Merkaz Hosen is the only facility in Sderot which offers treatment for children. "We have 1,000 patient files, and over 80 percent of our cases our children suffering from symptoms of PTSD. Eight years of Qassam rocket fire has produced a generation of ‘Qassam children’ who have no concept of normal life," said Yosef.

"We try to offer Sderot children and their parents the tools needed to deal with stress and shock." "Only this week, I had a mother break down, when she told me that the new bomb shelter in her home was complete. Although most Sderot parents have been reassured by the new bomb shelters, it was an unpleasant reality check for this particular mom. "




Yosef has a staff of 18 psychologists and social workers, all of whom she will be forced to fire once the funding for center runs out at the end of the year. Yosef explained that 50 percent of the center’s funding comes from NGOs, while Knesset ministries provide the other half.

"Until recently, The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews had provided 50 percent of the funding to the trauma and shock center. Now the organization can no longer provide that funding," said Yosef.

Sderot Media Center has been pressuring Knesset members to secure further funding for the trauma facilities, alongside Dr. Katz and Dalia Yosef. Out of the NIS 6 million needed to keep five trauma centers in Sderot and the western Negev open, the Knesset has thus far provided NIS 1.5 million which will keep the centers going until December.

Ambassador Phillips, noticeably moved by his visit, stated to Yosef that he was impressed with the dedication that she and other Sderot psychologists have shown to the community even under the intensity of the rocket attacks. Later the Ambassador spoke at Sapir College outside of Sderot, where he stated to students:
"I am conscious that I stand here today to meet with you students, just a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip, just a few kilometres from where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped almost three years ago. Thousands of rockets and mortars have rained down on Sderot and the surrounding areas since 2001, taking innocent lives and causing thousands of Israelis to live daily with fear, panic and dread."



The Ambassador’s visit to Sderot was spurred by a letter correspondence with SMC’s Anav Silverman. Silverman had written a letter to European Union ambassadors, pointing out that although the EU nations had graciously allocated funds for Palestinians who suffered the humanitarian consequences in the Gaza war, those living on the Israeli side and impacted by the war had received nothing. Silverman pointed out that both sides of the border deserved humanitarian aid.

Three embassies including Spain, the Netherlands and Britain responded to the letter, with the British Embassy following up in an on-site visit to Sderot. British Ambassador Phillips indicated at the end of the visit that he would bring the Sderot trauma facilities funding crisis to the attention of relevant international NGOs coordinating humanitarian aid.

The letter sent by Anav, to the EU-

To read Anav Silverman's letter to the European Union member countries: click here:
http://sderotmedia.org.il/bin/content.cgi?ID=428&q=3

To read the British Embassy's coverage of Ambassador Phillips' visit to Sderot, click here:
http://ukinisrael.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/?view=PressR&id=18889861

Sderot residents left to battle rockets and PTSD alone

#Sderot, #Mental health center, #PTSD, #Qassam rockets, #Trauma center, #shock center, #Gaza, #Hamas, #Sderot Media Center

By; Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
http://www.sderotmedia.com/

Sderot trauma facilities in danger of closing due to budget cuts.

Imagine that you are 18-years-old. You have just completed high school and in a few months you will enter the army. In the meantime, you spend your time going out with friends and working to save some money-- like any other typical teenager in Israel.

One afternoon, you come home exhausted from work and collapse into bed for a nap. Suddenly, in the middle of your nap you find yourself waking up to the sound of your window exploding above your bed. Shards of glass lie everywhere. It takes you a moment to realize that a rocket has slammed a few feet away from your home.
Welcome to a moment in the life of Ilan Dahan, a Sderot 18-year-old who slept through the Color Red siren-- only to wake up to a Gaza rocket exploding in his backyard last Tuesday evening, May 19.
“It’s a miracle that all I got was this scratch,” Ilan says, dazedly pointing to a red mark on his back, where a piece of glass cut through.
Ilan’s family stands around in shock. His mother Shula looks at her son tearfully. “I never expected this to happen to us during the ceasefire,” she says.

The back of the Dahan’s home is covered in debris and glass, while rocket shrapnel marks the walls and ceiling of the home. An evening breeze blows through the windowless windows. Ilan’s father, Avi, stands by his son. “I was terrified that something had happened to him,” Avi says in a quiet voice.
Now imagine that after such a rocket attack, the kind of therapy needed to get shock victims back on track, is no longer available. Due to significant budget cuts, trauma therapy facilities in Sderot, which have played a valuable role in rehabilitating residents of the rocket-torn community, are now in danger of closing down.

Those who will be affected most by this recent development are Sderot‘s children, as the Sderot Trauma Center, which caters mostly to Sderot children and teenagers - ages 17 and below - is on its way out.
Fifty percent of the center’s funding comes from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, or Keren LeYedidut. The organization can no longer provide the funds to keep the center going.



The trauma center treats 620 trauma patients, of whom 80% are children, says Daliah Yosef, the trauma center’s director.



“I’ve already handed out dismissal letters to the staff at the center,” Yosef told Sderot Media Center last Thursday, May 21 two days after the rocket attack.
The other 50% of the trauma center‘s funding is provided by the Israeli Government Ministries of Health, Revenue, and Seniors - not nearly enough to keep the center open.
“The harshest part of this reality is that hundreds of Sderot children will be left with no place to go for treatment,” says Yosef.

Ilan is fortunate that he is 18 and can therefore receive treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center, which ministers to adult victims from ages 18 and up. However, Sderot's Mental Health Center’s director, Dr. Adrianna Katz, says that although her center is in no danger of closing, she does not have enough staff to deal with over 6,000 trauma victim files --which continue to grow every day. In fact, since the recent rocket attack on Sderot, over 60 people from the residential neighborhood where the rocket landed, have sought treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center.

In addition to Yosef’s Trauma Center, the Sderot Shock Treatment Center which operates under the trauma center, is also in danger of shutting down.
Photo: Anav SilvermanThe Shock Treatment Center opened three years ago, alongside the trauma center, to provide immediate treatment to shock victims after rocket attacks. Before then, Sderot residents had to be transported 20 minutes away to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital or to Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Hospital.

“When the Shock Treatment Center opened in Sderot, it made treatment for Sderot residents much more efficient and easier, as they received help on the spot” said Dr. Katz, who also heads the shock center. “Sderot residents feel more at home being treated at the center.”
“Going back to the original way--transporting Sderot trauma victims by ambulance to hospitals outside the area is absolutely ridiculous,” Dr. Katz told Sderot Media Center. “The cost of transporting patients is more expensive and many times there are not enough ambulances to transport all victims, especially during episodes when there are a series of rocket attacks on the city.”

Indeed in the recent rocket attack, the Sderot Shock Treatment Center treated all eight victims of shock including a woman injured by rocket shrapnel.
Sderot’s trauma facilities remain a vital part of the Sderot community, which for eight years has been under Gaza rocket attack. As the city’s residents continue to live under the range of Qassam fire, it is the therapy and care that Dr. Katz and Dalia Yosef provide which helps residents return to a semblance of normal life.
In the meantime, Ilan Dahan continues to hope that someday he can wake up to a rocket-free sky.