Last week we met our new groups for the first time and got to know each other personally.
During the week, we began researching topics that interested us and ultimately decided on five topics:
1. Living in the shadow of war (&PTSD)
2. Athlete anxiety
3. Medicine
4. Social difficulties
5. Autism
Eventually, we chose the three that interested us most and interviewed two experts from each field in order to gain a deeper understanding of the problems in each.
Interviews summary:
Medicine
Dr. Uri Hamiel, Geneticist:
In some cases, patients who get diagnosed with rare diseases want to contact other families dealing with the same issues, but it is extremely difficult for the medical staff to locate anyone to connect them with. Providing both support and information is important.
Patients may undergo all the routine tests and still not find a problem, and then doctors must tell them that they do not know what the issue is. Additional tests can always be done, but they are very expensive and most people cannot afford them.
In some cases, healthy individuals are faced with very hard medical news. At the moment, these people have no support system and are overwhelmed and anxious. Many of them write to doctors asking for support.
A platform for collaboration among doctors. Locate doctors who work in related fields. A doctor's version of LinkedIn.
There are many mental problems that doctors deal with, such as traumas and guilt after being exposed to a variety of difficult cases (tragedy, death, disability). There is no time or appropriate platform for those doctors to cope and get help. There are numerous attempts to create support systems for doctors (e.g., meetings with social workers), but finding the time to do so is extremely difficult.
There is an app called "Gene Matcher" where geneticists can search for a specific gene, and then the app sends a message to all other doctors who are interested in that gene, in hopes of collaborating with them.
Dr. Shimon Ivry, Specialist in family and aesthetic medicine:
• In his opinion, the biggest challenge in the field of medicine is the inability to tailor medical treatment to individuals. In general, treatment, medication, and approaches are not tailored to fit the patient.
• In addition, Shimon says there is a large quality gap between the care a rich person receives and the care received by the poor. Health budgets should be raised and medicines should be included in the health basket that even the middle class can afford.
• The lack of proper solutions in this area has resulted in many people not being able to afford necessary medical treatments. Most of the population passed away prematurely and lived for many years under great suffering.
• Recent years have seen a significant increase in very young clients seeking aesthetic improvements in their bodies. Cosmetics companies and social networks expose young people to a misguided beauty model. Parents, who see their children suffering from depression because of their physical appearance, do whatever it takes to make them feel better, so even children as young as 14 come to my clinic
Social difficulties
Dr. Yari Gvion, Clinical Psychologist:
Social anxiety - There are people who are afraid to be around people, to speak in front of an audience, to eat in front of an audience, afraid to be approached, afraid to speak in class, etc.
Social avoidance- Self-isolation, avoiding social connections, preferring to be alone all the time.
Loneliness - a feeling of loneliness, of lack of belonging, sometimes also associated with social insecurity.
Difficulties in intimacy- People who want to be connected but are afraid of connection, afraid of being hurt. Sometimes these are people with a need for a lot of personal space. People who are afraid of being exposed. People who are most often "The life of the party", but have difficulty maintaining contact for a long time.
Insecurity of making new friends- feeling anxious, "I'm not good enough" "They will not like me" "I do not belong".
Miki Schwartz, School Guidance Counselor:
when dealing with school students, age is a significant factor.
This manifests by:
Distress can be shown in different ways - a high school student may join groups with a bad influence as a sign of distress, whereas an elementary school student probably won't do that since there are no such groups at that age.
Social difficulties can have different causes - an elementary school student will almost certainly react differently to situations compared to a high school student.
Different influences - an elementary school student will be most influenced by his family, while high school and middle school students will be influenced by their social groups at school.
Thus, age should be the main filter when dealing with help for school students.
Examples of reasons for social difficulties at school:
* Being different from the majority.
* Different life circumstances – divorced parents, loss of a loved one, growing without a father/mother, etc…
* Low self-esteem/confidence.
* Social Anxiety
* Low social skills
As a result of social difficulties, people may suffer from loneliness, stress, anxiety (not especially social anxiety), depression, and other difficulties. those have a bad effect on school performance.
Living in the shadow of war (PTSD) Dr. Farhi: Developed the 'Maase model' concerning mental first aid after a traumatic event/ emergency:
- The necessity to Activate the person that was involved in a traumatic event. There has been a presumption in the past that people should sleep or rest after trauma, and this is actually a huge trigger for the development of PTSD later on.
- "Talk sense". After a traumatic event, the conversation should be directed to parts of cognition and logic, while minimizing the emotional aspects. Emotional talk can simply damage the person's ability to function.
- Sympathetic state. In a state of stress and trauma, the person is in a sympathetic state where the nervous system is dominant. One of the side effects of sympathetic activity is the sharpening of our senses (we see better, hear better…). The amount of information we perceive is much larger than what we are used to in our routine. That is why there is difficulty in creating a chronological sequence of the traumatic event. The brain is trying to organize all the vast sensory information, and it can cause a lot of confusion that will later lead to the development of flashbacks and PTSD.
- Problems in the field: Lack of knowledge about coping with the initial traumatic situation, by professionals and people that were in the traumatic event. Unfortunately, many clinicians are unfamiliar with the 'Maase model', and they might cause damage.
- Technical solutions: There is a website called 'Forever Resilience' that provides a free online course that allows anyone to log in and learn about the principles of mental first aid. It is open to the public and requires passing the exam in order to get a certification and. They are now working together with the Ministry of Health on developing an app that will make the ‘Maase model’ accessible and help people with specific guidelines that will be provided to help others during traumatic situations.
Molly Lahad, Professor and psychologist:
He is considered an international expert in the treatment of Psychotrauma, world-renowned in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy. Founder and president of the Resources Association. Developed several methods of intervention and treatment, lecturer at Tel Hai College and academic advisor of the CBT Galilee program. He has authored over 35 books in the field.
As part of an emergency coping specialist Molly explains that physical and emotional responses are normal and can be reduced if we put the system in a "calm state".
Living in the shadow of a combat routine affects several levels: economic, health, security, social and emotional. The above-mentioned population is confronted on a daily basis with fear of .., distance, denial (in order to live in a slightly more routine and normal lifestyle). This situation creates a reduction in their way of living, avoidance, and social distance.
At this level - treatment without funding is at the center of resilience and in the study schedules/framework. Any other treatment involves payment without support from the state or whatever it is. There are a few Individual authorities using a geographic data analysis system. How much does it affect and help the individual? Not at all.
The population living under the shadow of a fighting routine should set as regular agenda as possible, breathe and avoid criticizing themselves.
The community, and all around have a lot of effect and power to ease dealing with the situation. The environment is rich with resources that can help the individuals with mutual guarantee and over-sense will contribute to the strengthening of the community. Although, by the end of the day, everyone still faces difficulty in their own home. There is a big sense of denial.
If there was a kind of safety net, anything that can reassure the population routine, to provide unnecessary concerns for example, car insurance- it’s there, and you are protected in case something happened... you can stay calm without asking yourself every day about your car insurance and be sure everything is all set. This will give the confidence you need. If we relate this to our topic – to know where all my family members are, and to know that I have a solution to any basic needs (all this if we refer to a generic population).
For example, 70% of the population in the Gaza Strip suffers from conscious anxiety or sub-anxiety, meaning most of them live under the feeling of survival and they are driven by protection mechanisms, which manage them and disrupt them from their normal actions such as leaving the house. They will spend most of their time vigilantly distracted from noise and the environment.
Type of actions that can strengthen the routine of mental resilience: Talk and share.
After deliberations, our team decided to focus on "Life in the shadow of war" as our domain.