ISRAEL 21C
Healing shattered psyches on scene of traumatic events
by Abigail Klein Leichman
June 14, 2016

Thirty Israeli EMTs, paramedics and doctors recently completed a training course qualifying them as psychotrauma volunteers and teachers for United Hatzalah, a private community-based network of voluntary first-responders across Israel. The volunteers already started providing psychological first aid before the graduation ceremony on May 25, 2016. They responded to a bus bombing, three cases of sudden heart attack deaths and three incidents of crib death. They will be on call whenever United Hatzalah is called to a scene of a terror attack, sudden death, child’s death, severe car accident, severe injuries, natural disaster, suicide and wartime trauma. “The new psychotrauma unit is something that we have been working towards for a long time,” United Hatzalah Founder Eli Beer tells ISRAEL21c. He says the psychotrauma unit is the first in the world to be fully integrated within an emergency response organization. READ MORE