At Mayanei Hayeshua’s Eating Disorders Department, personal work plans are devised for each patient, fully adapted to their individual needs and pace. The staff is comprised of psychologists, psychiatrists, a wide variety of occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, and teaching staff. The director of the unit is Prof. Danny Stein. The senior team includes social worker Esti Herman, adolescent medicine doctor Dr. Orna Atias, Dr. Tzofia Laufer, head nurse Meirav Shimoni, and the unit’s dietician, Moriah Uziel.
The entire team has undergone extensive training in anorexia and eating disorders and believes in multidisciplinary, collaborative work so that all treatments are synchronized and go through many critical eyes, ensuring maximal results and the greatest chance at complete healing.
The individual program plan has proved itself exceptionally effective in creating a unified “coalition” against the illness and in preventing splits or resistance by the patient, with the goal of integrating the young patient back into the family, the community, school, and society. Originally, we anticipated accepting up to 12 patients in the program within the first year, of which 4 or 5 would include over-night stay.
Currently, we are treating around 24 patients within the Department. At the moment, there are 12 inpatients, and we are planning on adding an additional 4 beds, which will allow us to accept more people and slightly alleviate the lengthy waiting list of many more youths in urgent need of treatment. Additionally, there are 7 patients who are treated in the daycare unit and 5 patients who have completed the treatment, but still come for follow-ups.
“Thank you for helping me organizing my thoughts” a painting from a girl treated at Eating Disorders Department to her therapist.
