About 10% of the youth in Israel suffer from eating disorders. A fifth of anorexics will die

About a tenth of the youth in Israel suffer from eating disorders, and about a fifth of the afflicted girls will die from the disease, he warned today (third) in the Knesset Professor Israel Strauss the director of the psychiatric system at “Maa’eini Hishu’a”. The Health and Child Rights Committee in the Knesset discussed the lack of therapeutic response to these disorders.

Dr Yuval Ravadirector of the child psychiatric department at the Ministry of Health, said that although 32 beds and nursing and treatment staff were budgeted for these disorders, 12 of them – specifically in the central area – were not staffed. He emphasized that in the places where the beds were filled, the problem decreased significantly. The waiting time for hospital treatment in the center of the country is about six months. Revital Ordenthe director of the ambulatory mental health system at the ministry, warned of a shortage of psychiatric personnel specializing in these disorders.

Prof. Israel Strauss warned that about 10% of the youth in Israel, women and men, suffer from an eating disorder, slightly more than the global rate. About 20% of the girls who suffer from it die. About 80-90% of girls suffering from the disease have experienced sexual abuse. He emphasized the duty of cultural sensitivity in treatment.

‎Iris ben Yaakovan injury prevention officer at the Ministry of Education, told about instructing educators and counselors to identify signs of these disorders, and to summon the student’s parents, and warned that a student suffering from a disorder and not being treated – could lead to this by other girls in the class.

According to Dr Orna Atiasdirector of the Ofek clinic for eating disorders of “Kallit” in the southern district, according to the professional literature about 30% of young women suffer from an eating disorder, but in Israel about 76% of the youth engage in dieting (a world record), and about 10% of the youth suffer from eating disorders . About 30% of the patients suffer from a chronic disease, with severe functional impairment in all areas of development – physical, fertility and bone density, emotional and social.

She warned that in the religious sector, and even more so in the ultra-orthodox sector, people often avoid seeking treatment due to the lack of culture-sensitive treatment and withdrawal in the spiritual state, and therefore turn to it late, in difficult situations. The ward at “Ma’aini Hashuah” is the only religious inpatient unit in the world today, with 14 beds, and it provides service to Israel and the world.

‎Israeli Vicky Richterthe representative of the association “Our Journey – Forum of Families Dealing with Eating Disorders” emphasized that even as it was during the Corona period, “since the beginning of the war there has been a 77% increase in applications to the support groups that the association operates. Since the waiting time for treatment is more than 6 months, the parents become the main treatment factor and have to deal not only with the difficulty of treating a sick child, but also with the costs of private treatment, which amount to more than NIS 6,000 per month.

Unfortunately, even though we warn again and again, we will not make any changes in the matter – and our children do not receive the care they need. It’s time to stop talking – and start bringing change.’

According to the plan of the Ministry of Health from six months ago, the ministry does not have accurate information on the number of people suffering from eating disorders, because a large part of the population suffering from these disorders does not seek treatment or seeks private treatment. According to the estimates of the professionals and according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics on the size The population in 2020 was estimated to be between 41,270 and 55,030 people, but this figure does not include women under the age of 15 and over the age of 24 or men.

There is an agreement in the medical community that the rate of people suffering from these disorders in the Western world in general and in Israel in particular is increasing, and today the phenomenon exists even among population groups that have not suffered from it until now. In the past, eating disorders were common in Israel among young and secular Jewish women, while today the number of them has increased among men, Arabs, ultra-Orthodox and older women who contracted the disease in their youth.

In addition, there is evidence that among those diagnosed with eating disorders there is a high rate of dual morbidity – mainly with personality disorders and anxiety – therefore there are no data on the number of those hospitalized for eating disorders – compared to the number of those diagnosed with this disorder and hospitalized for other mental disorders accompanying it.

According to the Chairman of the Health Committee, MK June whistles (Shas), the waiting times for treatment are too long, and called for the opening of additional treatment frameworks as balancing homes. Meshariki added that the treatment of young people in need must be sensitive and fast. He warned that in the Jerusalem area, which serves about a million people, there are only six beds for treatment in this area. The Committee for the Rights of the Child, Eli Delal (Likud) emphasized that the existing solution is not enough, and this leads to a worsening of the condition of these sick young people.