(Photo by Serge Attal/FLASH90)
By Abigail Klein Leichman - November 24, 2015
Originally appeared here in Israel21c
When 130 people were killed and 368 injured in a series of terror attacks in Paris earlier this month on November 13, 15 clinicians trained by Israeli experts fanned out to area hospitals to offer psychotrauma interventions as the victims were brought in.
These French mental-health professionals from OSE, the largest Jewish welfare organization in Paris, were among a group of 80 who had been trained by members of the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) following the terror attack on a Paris kosher supermarket last January.
ITC Director Talia Levanon tells ISRAEL21c that Israel’s unfortunate experience and expertise in the psychological effects of terror bring a critical perspective to foreign professionals more used to dealing with isolated incidents.
As France is suffering such attacks on a more frequent basis, the ITC and Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) are stepping up efforts to train clinicians there – even as a wave of terror in Israel is keeping the ITC very busy at home. Read More