In an attempt to minimize the epidemic of anorexia and eating disorders in Israel, Klalit Health Services established a unique training program for multi-professional treatment teams to manage eating disorder cases.
The integrated program was formulated by Dr. Einat Tzuberi, a clinical social worker and director of the Center for the Treatment of Darim Eating Disorders and the Center for Mental Health at Shelva from the Klalit Group, and Dr. Rinat Grundman-Shem Tov, a dietician in charge at the Center for Treatment of Eating Disorders at Darim and the Center for Mental Health at Shelva.
Klalit Health Services warned that the corona epidemic has resulted in a dramatic increase in the rate of eating disorder cases worldwide. Among the explanations for the phenomenon: the simultaneous accumulation of risk factors such as social isolation, food insecurity, weight reduction challenges and massive encouragement of physical activity, disruption of the routine and damage to the accessibility of health services.
A recent report published by the Knesset’s research center states that this trend is also observed in Israel and leads to long waiting lines for clinical and inpatient settings for eating disorders. As a result, teams in primary clinics, children’s wards in hospitals and youth wards in psychiatric hospitals are collapsing under the load of eating disorder cases.
Under these circumstances, the training program for the management of eating disorder cases was developed, within the framework of primary medicine and general hospital departments.