The Hadassah University Medical Center provides state-of- the-art health services to all the citizens of the region, regardless of religion, politics or ethnic origin and beyond. Among its 130 departments, specialized units and multi-discipline Centers of Excellence, the Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry under the direction of Dr Esti Galili has acquired an international reputation for outstanding healing, teaching and research in the critical field of child and adolescent mental health.

The Unit provides an array of out-patient and in-patient services for children and adolescents with a wide range of emotional and behavioral difficulties. The Unit’s specialized professional staff offers integrative approaches with a variety of therapies, developing full-scale treatment plans based on individual evaluations. Their multi-dimensional approach includes an assessment of the child’s physiological, emotional and cognitive states, as well as the family dynamic and cultural background.

The activities of the Unit fall into the following broad categories:

a.   Out-Patient Services (including Day Treatment)

b.   In-Patient Services

c.   Consultation Liaison Services

d.   Research Activities 

a.   Out-Patient Services

      The Child and Family Mental Health Out-Patient Clinic was established in an old German school, converted for this purpose, on Ethiopia Street in downtown Jerusalem. The Clinic is community based and outside the Hospital campus. The faculty includes: specialist child and adolescent psychiatrists; clinical, rehabilitation, developmental and medical psychologists; clinical social workers; art therapists; and an occupational therapist.

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      In the framework of the Out-Patient Clinic, a Crisis Intervention Center is currently being developed, to address immediate needs of children, adolescents, and their families.

      The Infant Psychiatry Unit is headed by Dr. Shlomit Levy, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry (Hadassah University Hospital) and trained in infant psychiatry (Sackler School of Medicine at the Tel-Aviv University). The Unit is one of seven in the country developed by combined initiative of the Ministry of Health and the Sacta-Rashi Foundation.

      The Unit provides assessment and mainly short-term intervention for very young children, aged 0-6 years.  

      The Unit addresses problems that include: sleeping, eating, soiling problems; behavioral difficulties; early detection of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and learning difficulties; social phobia (“over-shyness”); autistic spectrum disorders; effective disorders as expressed in young age (depression and bi-polar disorders); and family consultations on issues of divorce etc. Interventions include: guidance for parents; dyadic treatment for parent and child; child therapy; family therapy; play therapy; physiotherapy; and occupational therapy.

      The Faculty includes a child psychiatrist, two clinical psychologists, a medical psychologist, a developmental psychologist specializing in family therapy, an occupational therapist, and a pediatric clinical psychology student.

      The General Out-Patient Clinic for children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years, evaluates and treats a large spectrum of psychiatric disorders, including: anxiety disorders; obsessive-compulsive disorders; movement disorders, including Tourette’s Syndrome; Attention Deficit Disorder; learning disabilities; behavioral disorders; eating disorders; affective disorders (including depression and bi-polar disorder); psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia), etc. Heading the General Out-Patient Clinic is Dr. Ayelet Meltzer, a specialist in pediatrics (Shaare Zedek Medical Center) and in child and adolescent psychiatry (Hadassah University Hospital) and trained in infant psychiatry (Sackler School of Medicine at the Tel-Aviv University).  She is participating in a family training course. The faculty includes: child and adolescent psychiatrists; clinical psychologists; a rehabilitation psychologist (neuro-psychologist); clinical social workers; an art therapist; and a clinical psychologist in training.

      The Day Treatment Unit professionals have addressed the debate in child psychiatry whether children with eating disorders should be treated separately from children with other kinds of emotional difficulties. We believe it is very important that children with eating disorders relate to difficulties other than their own. Therefore, the Day Treatment Center treats other problems as well, including depression and anxiety.

      The Unit for Eating Disorders is an attempt to forestall hospitalization and allow patients to maintain a regular routine, as much as possible, especially in school attendance. The Center operates four times a week from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Most of the patients are adolescent girls, at least 50 percent of whom suffer from eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia and severe obesity. The Unit provides comprehensive and intensive intervention, with careful supervision of food intake. Heading the Unit is Mr. Uri Pinus, a senior clinical social worker who is a family therapy specialist, and who for years was in charge of the Emergency Social Work set-up at the Ein Kerem campus.  Mr. Pinus is one of the founders of the Israel Association for Eating Disorders.

      The faculty team includes a child and adolescent psychiatrist; a psychiatric nurse; clinical psychologists; and several teachers and expressional therapists (drama, art, and movement); and counselors (students of psychology and social work).

      There is an open group discussion at the beginning and end of every daily session, and two other group sessions focusing on either creative activities (such as art, movement, film-making) or on academic sessions. These group activities are a highly-valued means of helping adolescents mobilize creativity, thus enhancing both self-esteem and social skills.

      Services include: individual psychotherapy; family intervention with each child; work with parent groups; group work; and psychopharmacology.

      The Orion Post-Trauma Center for Children was established in June 2002 at the Ethiopia Street clinic but today finds its home at the Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus campus. We created this Center in order to come to the aid of children and families brought to the Emergency Room immediately after a terror event. At the time, they received an immediate evaluation by a child and adolescent psychiatrist, but no funding existed to cover the costs of ongoing treatment when needed. Through generous contributions from donors in Israel and abroad, the staff is now able to offer follow-up services to monitor the child’s need for continuing treatment. The faculty contacts the victim and family within a few days after the event, and keeps regular contact with the family.  If symptoms persist, children are brought to the Center for an interview and treatment is provided as needed. To date, hundreds of young people have been evaluated in the ER since the beginning of the Intifada, and over 200 children and their families have been treated at the Center since its establishment.

     While there has luckily been a significant decrease in the number of terror-related events, the extensive professional expertise of our team is utilized to treat those victims of terror who only during the “quiet” period allow themselves or only then recognize the psychological symptomatology as a consequence of the trauma they were exposed to during the Intifada. In addition, the Center treats victims of other traumas such as motor vehicle accidents, domestic trauma, abuse trauma, and others.

     Heading the Orion Center is Dr. Fortunato Ben-Harosh, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry (Talbieh Mental Health Center), a graduate of child and adolescent psychotherapy training (Geha Mental Health Center), a specialist in trauma treatment (in several techniques including CBT, PE, and EMDR). Dr. Ben-Harosh is also the Chair of Clinical Treatment of Children and Adolescents in the Israel Trauma Coalition. With Dr. Ben-Harosh the faculty includes: clinical and rehabilitation psychologists; clinical social workers, one of whom specializes in psychotherapy and in infant psychiatry and another specializes in family therapy.

     The staff has been carefully recruited to ensure the highest quality services and trained in the latest techniques relating to PTSD.

      The Orion Center services include: immediate intervention in the Emergency Room; follow-up psychological services for children, adolescents and families; community outreach educating doctors, teachers, and social workers to help them identify children and adolescents with PTSD, and training them to work with children in dealing with the current situation.

     The Center provides backup for referrals, conducts research on the impact of terrorism on children and adolescents to ensure the most effective treatment and serves as a model for other hospitals offering guidance in establishing post-trauma centers.

      The Center staff worked in Northern Israel during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, traveling daily with the Hospital ambulance to treat children and families in bomb shelters in Nahariya. Today we continue to supervise the staff of new clinics that opened after the War, in Safed and M’rar.

b. The Child and Adolescent In-Patient Unit

      The Child and Adolescent In-Patient Unit serves children aged 6 to18, however, most of the patients are in fact adolescents. It provides acute care and crisis stabilization.

      With its facilities increasingly stretched, the Department was relocated in May 2007 from its former location at the Mt. Scopus campus to the seventh floor of the newly renovated Charlotte R. Bloomberg Mother and Child Center at the Ein Kerem campus. 

      About fifty percent of the in-patients have eating disorders; the other fifty percent have a range of problems including non-compliance with medical treatment in a way which could be life-threatening, psychotic disorders, affective disorders, behavioral problems, severe anxiety, etc.

      The hospitalization is used to alter eating habits sufficiently for the patient to transfer to continuous out-patient treatment as needed. During morning hours, the children are divided into two different classes for their educational activities – one group is remedial for children with learning disabilities, while the other merely maintains normal progress in schoolwork. Throughout the day, individual treatment is provided for each child. After lunch there are creative activities – art, drama, music, physical exercise - until 4:00 p.m., after which informal recreational activities are led by university social work and psychology students.

      After in-patient hospitalization (an average of three months) we offer a "step down" or "halfway" program. This program enables the children and adolescents to gradually transfer from full hospitalization to out-patient services.

      The In-Patient Unit provides: individual therapy; group work; parental guidance; family intervention; parents’ groups; and psychopharmacology. The Unit is headed by Dr. Yoav Cohen, a specialist in adult psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry (both from Hadassah University Hospital). Dr. Cohen spent two years doing a fellowship (2003-05) at Yale University.

      The faculty consists of: nursing staff (including psychiatric nurses); child and adolescent psychiatrists; clinical psychologists; a medical psychologist; social-workers; and school team, including teachers and expressional therapists.

c.   Consultation Liaison Services

1.      The Pediatric Psychiatry Unit Consultation Liaison Service for Hospitalized  Children which offers consultations to treating physicians upon request.

2.      Services for Children Suffering from Life-Threatening Illnesses.

This includes a psycho-social team as part of the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. Our part of the service includes a consulting psychiatrist, a senior educational psychologist (specialized in psychotherapy and in sand-tray therapy), and a rehabilitation psychologist. It also includes a medical psychologist as part of the team treating and following HIV positive children.

3.      The Child Abuse Program provides immediate crisis intervention to protect the child. The doctors and nurses in the Emergency Rooms oftentimes are the ones to refer these cases to the Psychiatry Unit.  In order to have a long-term impact in improving the lives of the victims and breaking the cycle of inter-generational abuse, comprehensive inter-disciplinary treatment involving the Department of Pediatrics, Social Work Services and the Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is essential.

d. Research Unit

The Herman Dana Division In Child Psychiatry

The Unit is clinically-based, investigating topics such as: the genetic components in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); the psychological effects of car accidents on children; the psychological effect of terror trauma on minors (long-term follow-up); the comparison between the psychological development of children born to mothers who suffered from post-partum depression and those children born to mothers without any post-partum depression psychopathology.