The Committee for the Rights of the Child, chaired by MK Kتي Shtrit, conducted a tour today at Safra Children’s Hospital at the Sheba Medical Center. The committee visited the Pediatric Psychiatry Department and the Pediatric Eating Disorders Department. MKs Pnina Tamano-Shata and Adi Azoulay also participated in the tour.
committee chair, MK Kتي Shtrit: “We were exposed to one of the flagship departments in the healthcare system for treating eating disorders, but even this department cannot meet the national need. This model must be replicated everywhere.
I was exposed to the professional, dedicated, and sensitive work of the medical and therapeutic staff. This is high-quality personnel who work with exceptional dedication and under appropriate conditions, out of a deep commitment to the well-being and rights of children and adolescents struggling with eating disorders.
Alongside this, a serious problem arose that cannot be ignored – a significant national shortage of inpatient beds. This distress impairs the ability to provide timely care to children and adolescents who need life-saving treatment, and puts families in an unbearable situation of waiting and uncertainty.
As Chair of the Committee for the Rights of the Child, I will do everything to ensure the increase in the number of beds and resources in the eating disorder departments, to ensure that every child across the country receives accessible, appropriate, and timely treatment. This is an urgent need, and it is a national responsibility.”
Prof. Doron Gothelf, Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba: “The past few years have presented children and youth in Israel with unprecedented psychological and emotional challenges. The unique model we have developed in the Psychiatry Department at Safra Children’s Hospital was built to provide a precise response to these distresses.
We hope it will be adopted as a national model and expanded to additional hospitals and medical centers across the country, alongside a significant strengthening of community care.
Our responsibility is clear: to build an accessible and high-quality continuum of care, which will allow every child to receive professional psychological care, in a timely manner, and wherever they need it.”
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