The Israel Trauma Coalition has trained French clinicians to provide trauma treatment and coping skills in Paris following a series of terror attacks. Photo by Serge Attal/FLASH90
Israel trains French trauma experts in wake of terror attacks
Israeli experts have been training French first responders since the kosher supermarket attack earlier this year. Now the program is being broadened as France faces a terror wave.
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. “Like people in Israel, the French are getting ready for long-time duress, which requires a different approach,” explains Levanon. “In Israel, we know there is no safe place or time and I think now people in France understand this. They understand they are very vulnerable.”
Following the supermarket attack, Levanon went to Paris to map out needs and create appropriate partnerships and programs to meet those needs. Using a $65,000 grant from the UJA Federation of New York, ITC then sent two trainers, Ruvie Rogel from the Community Stress Prevention Center and Tel Hai College Prof. Mooli Lahad, a specialist in drama therapy and bibliotherapy to treat psychotrauma. Now the ITC will bring France its community-based approach to healing, resilience and training, adapting it to local needs and culture in order to put effective preparedness and response mechanisms in place.
h/t Israel Project
Israel trains French trauma experts in wake of terror attacks
