HADASSAH MEDICINE
Helping Children Deal With Trauma Young victims of pandemic stress learn coping strategies By Wendy Elliman
SHUTTERSTOCK (TOP); COURTESY OF HADASSAH INTERNATIONAL
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s if pandemic lockdowns and shuttered schools were not enough, 13-year-old Meirav was hit by a car near her home in Jerusalem in spring 2021. Her injuries were minor, but the emergency care physicians at the Hadassah Medical Organization who first saw the pale and silent teen diagnosed her with post-trauma and referred her for help. “It was quickly clear that Meirav’s trauma was not related to her accident but to what was happening at home,” said Dr. Esti Galili-Weisstub, head of Hadassah’s Herman Dana Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which has centers on both the Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem campuses. Meirav, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, and her four siblings had spent the months of remote schooling largely confined to their small fourth-floor apartment, Dr. Galili-Weisstub explained. Their father had lost his hotel job when the tourists stopped coming. Frustrated and volatile, he had dominated the living room, leaving the television on and blaring all day. Their mother’s attempts to engage the five children—even having the family sit down together for regular meals—proved futile. One of the siblings was previously diagnosed with ADHD, another has behavioral problems and all five were bored and squabbling. “The pandemic created a new and
very difficult reality for this family,” said Dr. Galili-Weisstub, a world-renowned expert in child trauma. “The same is true for many, many others. Covid-related restrictions, fear, stress and isolation brought an avalanche of mental health problems countrywide.” The psychiatry division, launched 20 years ago and today one of the most comprehensive psychiatric services in Israel, treats children from birth to age 18 and addresses developmental and neuropsychological difficulties as well as social and family problems. Throughout the pandemic to today, the division’s 14 inpatient beds—for those at risk for suicide or self-harm or who require monitoring due to an eating disorder—have been full, with a six-month
Dr. Esti Galili-Weisstub
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
waiting list for new patients. Its day clinics have been at capacity, too, fielding 17,000 patients in 2021 and a months-long waiting list just to get an appointment.
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ating disorders are among the mental health issues that have risen worldwide among adolescents and young adults during the pandemic. One study conducted by Michal Grinstein-Weiss, director of the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis and a faculty member at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, together with Rami Benbenishty, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that 24 percent of Israeli youngsters experienced disordered eating in 2021, almost double the number pre-pandemic. Food, explained Dr. Galili-Weisstub, becomes a coping mechanism, something that children feel they can control in a changing world. She recalls treating a 12-year-old girl with no previous history of psychological difficulties who began binge eating during lockdown. Her weight shot up, and she spiraled into depression and began shunning social interaction. Admitted to the division’s eating disorders clinic, the adolescent gained control of her eating and her mood aided by therapy as well as by contact with other young patients.
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