I ISRAEL

I

GREATER DETROIT COUNCIL

INA'AMAT USA

SPIRITUAL ADOPTION
LUNCHEON

"Biz A Hundred and Tzvantzik"

Program Gives Support
For TVoubled Teens

Celebrating the 80th
Birthday of

GOLDIE ADLER

HONORARY CHAIRMAN

and

Saluting the 40th Anniversary of the

STATE OF ISRAEL

Thursday, August 4, 1988
Musical Quartet:

12:00 noon

FOUR. SEASONS

($36.00 Tax Deductible)
Donation $50.00
at the SOUTHFIELD HILTON
17017 W. 9 Mile, Southfield
For reservations call the NA'AMAT office: 967-4750

Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results
Place Your Ad Today. Call 354-6060

Congregation Beth Shalom
HEBREW SCHOOL
Now Available in W Bloomfield

at the

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER
Open to

NON-MEMBERS and MEMBERS

Grades 3-7
Tuesdays & Thursdays
and Sundays in OAK PARK

along with

Monday & Wednesday Students
attending the Oak Park Branch

WE ARE A CONSERVATIVE
SYNAGOGUE AFFILIATED RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
SERVING THE NEEDS AND EDUCATION OF
YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE.
Contact the C.B.S. School Office: 547-7972

34

FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1988

Yoram Hazan listens to a young patient at the Eitanim Adolescent Unit.

LEORA FRUCHT

erusalem — In the past
five years, 57 Israeli
youths have killed
themselves. The victims are
often described as excellent
students who were popular
and talented. In short, they
were young people who seem-
ed to have everything going
for them on the outside.
"The problem with this sort
of description is that you don't
know what's behind it," says
40-year-old psychologist
Yoram Hazan. "And what's
behind it is usually a painful
experience that must be faced
— because if it is not, it is
often a good enough reason
for a person to kill himself."
As director of the adolescent
unit of Eitanim Psychiatric
Hospital, Hazan tries to find
our what is going on inside
the heads of many of Israel's
troubled teenagers — before
they feel compelled to resort
to desperate measures.
The number of Israelis who
take their own lives is lower
than what might be expected,
given the hard facts of life in
Israel. A country founded on
the ashes of the Holocaust, a
large part of its population is
survivors of that nightmare.
A country that has been in a
constant state of war since its
establishment, it demands
two to three years of army ser-
vice from its youth and, from
its men, annual reserve duty
until age 55. Most Israeli men
have experienced at least one
war, and often more than one.
"We're a country that lives
in constant danger," says
Hazan, who served as a
paratroop officer himself and
has fought in three wars.
"Given our situation, we are
fortunate the suicide rate is

not higher. "One of the
reasons it is not may be due,
in part, to the country's men-
tal health care network — a
network that was recently
described by visiting profes-
sionals as exceptionally flex-
ible and humane.
"Patients here are treated
as people and not just as pa-
tients," noted one American
mental health care specialist
who visited the country
recently.
One institution that strong-
ly exemplifies that spirit of

Most of the youths
who undergo
treatment at
Eitanim are either
on the verge of
going insane or
are close to
suicide.

individualism is the adoles-,
cent unit of Eitanim
Psychiatric Hospital. And one
man who vigorously defends
that spirit is its director
Yoram Hazan.
"Most of the youths who
undergo treatment at
Eitanim are either on the
verge of going insane or are
close to suicide," Hazan days.
"It's very common for
traumas to surface during
adolescence. Until then,
children often manage by
depending on their parents
for strength and protection.
With the gradual separation
from their parents, they're
forced to tap into their own
resevoir of strength — and
many of them discover the
don't have the resources or
they don't know how to tap
them."