The National Center for Innovation in Children’s Resilience and Mental Health in Israel (CICRM) will lead efforts to develop new methods, research, treat, and foster resilience and mental health among children. This is especially salient now for those affected by the October 7th massacre and its aftermath, an ongoing traumatic event in Israel. Drawing upon the proven expertise at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and also from other relevant Hebrew University faculties and units such as Education, Occupational therapy, Law, Psychology, and Medicine, this new initiative will leverage existing expertise and student resources in new ways to break ground in treating trauma and fostering resilience in children.
Israel and Trauma
Israel is no stranger to trauma. Even before October 7th, high rates of trauma and stress in Israeli society could be attributed in part to constant security threats and terror attacks, the cost of living/economic insecurity, and to large waves of immigration into Israel resulting in experiences of dislocation and alienation for many immigrants, not to mention national and inter-generational Holocaust-related trauma. Mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more are common in Israeli society. In fact, these conditions affect approximately 10% of the worldwide population.
A Radically New Approach
We propose to approach the mental health crisis among children and youth from a radically new perspective, creating small groups of academics together with clinicians, professional experts, practitioners, and students from social work and adjacent fields, to innovate in fostering children’s resilience and mental health and in the understanding, perception, prevention, and treatment of trauma. Built upon similar, yet very different, concepts of other innovation hubs at Hebrew University such as Biodesign and ASPER HUJI Innovate, we propose genuinely mixed groups – in this case of students, academic faculty and experienced fieldworkers – as well as youth and parents (“experts by experience”), when appropriate. The innovation groups will be invited to think out of the box in approaches to research and practice. We aim to provide a vibrant multi-disciplinary incubator for social innovation, and to prepare the next generation of leaders in the prevention and treatment of trauma in children, and in fostering children’s resilience and mental health in Israel and worldwide. We are excited to launch this university-based leadership-research-practice-policy initiative.
About HUJI Forum
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