Since October 7th, the IDF has had an unsurprising mental health care crisis

I just witnessed history and a personal dream come true. Last night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened the “Peima” Multidisciplinary Center for Mental Health, Strengthening & Resilience — groundbreaking and badly needed. This is the first time in IDF history that soldiers will be able to be treated within the military system for trauma and PTSD.

Until now, when you needed mental health help in the IDF, the only thing you could ask for was a “kaban” — an acronym for the Hebrew for “mental health officer.” That is simply talk therapy, and if you got an unhelpful kaban, you were out of luck. Now, there is a whole center staffed with experts in dealing with Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and building resilience, as well as a psychiatrist and group therapy. There are no words to describe how incredibly exciting this is to see.

I was in the IDF from late 2017 to early 2022, and to say mental health was a taboo topic in the IDF back in my day is an understatement. I was fortunate to have a commander who was a fellow lone soldier, and she understood what we were going through and gave us endless help throughout our stints of service. However, she was in the small minority.

After a string of lone soldier suicides in 2019, mental health care in the IDF became my pet cause. I made a video that is mandatory viewing in IDF commander courses explaining why lone soldiers have the rights that we do and 10 tips to be a better commander — #10 is “Ask us how we’re doing, because you might be the only person who asks.”

In 2020, I produced and edited the first-ever IDF video for World Mental Health Day — marking the first time in history the IDF ever spoke about mental health on social media. In 2021, I created a video profile on an English-speaking kaban to raise awareness about the people in that position.

Every chance I got, I tried to push for more mental health awareness within the IDF, and  when lone soldiers reached out to me, I encouraged and helped them get in touch with kabanim and private therapists.

All this to say, when I was in reserves for the first six months of the war and I was asked to make a presentation for the proposal of an IDF mental health center, I jumped at the opportunity. This center was in the works before the war, but October 7th brought a mental health care crisis upon this country like never before, and the IDF stepped up.

It was the week of Hanukkah, and the Technological and Logistics Directorate was about to ask the Friends of the IDF (FIDF) for funding to make this dream come true. The plan was to make a new building in Netanya that would be the full one-stop shop a variety of mental health care for hundreds of soldiers at a time, including bunks to sleep. While that was being built, we needed a temporary building.

Seeing that building come to life is the best feeling in the world. There is officially a real place for mental health care in the IDF. There is officially hope.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, FIDF, for funding this dream come true. Countless soldiers’ lives are about to be changed and saved.

—

If you know a soldier or reservist suffering from trauma or PTSD, please tell them to make an appointment with a kaban and asked to be referred to the Peima Center. Let’s make sure every soldier who needs help is finally able to get it.