Women’s Psychiatric Ward

The Women’s Ward has a skilled, sensitive professional team that includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and allied health staff. The dedicated nursing team, made up of experienced nurses, stays in close contact with each patient and attends to every aspect of her daily routine — down to the most basic needs — out of a deep regard for her dignity and wellbeing.

We place particular emphasis on teamwork and communication between everyone involved in a patient’s care. The team sets aside time each day to discuss and think through cases together, and once a week the full professional team meets to fine-tune each patient’s treatment so that it best matches her needs and wishes.

The team draws up a personalised treatment plan for each patient, combining medication, psychological therapy, and a wide range of supports and tools. Psychological care includes both individual and group therapy across different disciplines.

Alongside the various therapeutic professions, including art therapy, the team works to engage each patient’s healthy, capable side, building her confidence on many levels through dance, sport, art, music, and more. The ward has a fully equipped gym and other facilities for patients’ wellbeing.

We believe that the involvement of family is essential to recovery and to a patient’s quality of life, both now and in the future. A dedicated contact person therefore keeps in regular touch with relatives, helping them understand the full picture and the part they can play in offering support.

Our ultimate goal is to help each patient gradually return to every aspect of a good, independent, and stable life — personally, socially, educationally, and in work. To that end, a wide range of support is available both during and after the hospital stay:

• The hospital’s school, for young women aged 18–21, where students prepare for their bagrut exams. They can also learn to drive and gain experience in areas such as computer graphics and English.
• A continuation group, which sustains the rehabilitation process after outpatient treatment ends. Beyond this group, many patients stay in touch with one another after discharge, meeting up and spending time together.

We recognise that certain challenges may stay with a patient throughout her life, so we also help her navigate the outside world, assisting with tasks she finds difficult to manage on her own.

Rehabilitation is given great importance here and is an integral part of the process. A hospital stay is limited in length and is only one part of a patient’s wider journey back to full functioning and life in the community. In fact, it is often the social side of life that mental illness affects most: a patient may feel uncomfortable in company, undervalued, or even rejected.

We help patients apply to the committee responsible for awarding rehabilitation services, and — for those already within a rehabilitation framework — lead a joint process with their family and the relevant rehabilitation bodies, so that their progress is not interrupted. The ward’s staff also help patients access their entitlements, supported in this by the hospital’s intake team, which speeds up procedures with the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) and greatly eases the process for patients and their families.