Learning to Treat Trauma from Israel’s Combat Soldiers
Learning to Treat Trauma from Israel’s Combat Soldiers
April 2, 2012
Since the establishment of the State of Israel, its citizens have developed a psychological resilience against the ongoing conflict that plagues their nation. Many people, however, still suffer from trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome following terrorist activity.
Prof. Gabriel Schreiber, dean of BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and a psychiatrist, has spent his career researching how best to treat trauma victims. By working with Israelis who have been witness to and victims of traumatic events, he has discovered effective treatments.
Based on his experience working with Israeli combat soldiers, Prof. Schreiber has set forth three guidelines that clinicians in Israel and around the world should adhere to when treating trauma patients: proximity, immediacy and empathy.
Clinicians must treat the patients in close proximity to where the trauma happened and do so as soon as possible. He also emphasizes the idea of validating the victims’ post-trauma emotions and assuring them that these feelings are to be expected in this type of situation. Normalizing their reaction to an abnormal situation is a critical element to preventing post-traumatic stress.
Prof. Schreiber also finds that constant preparedness at the workplace and at home helps Israelis feel more secure. New construction regulations require all buildings to include emergency safe rooms and older buildings to be retrofitted with them.
“This structure creates safety,” he says, referring not just to the physical reality of safety, but to the psychological sense of safety, as well.
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