Psychological service

Head of Service:  04-8559236
E-mail:   @pstira.health.gov.il
 
The psychological staff at the center provides a wide range of psychological treatments and services. The staff includes 20 psychologists (counselors, experts and interns) and some 25 psychology students (BA).

 
The psychologists operate ate the different hospital wards and its attached clinics - Children and Youth Clinic and Adult Clinic, while some provide psychological services in the community.
 

The sector is headed by Orly Lavon, a senior clinical psychologist, member of the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, expert and trainer in psychotherapy and psycho-diagnostics and specialist in marital therapy and group therapy, a doctoral student of the psychoanalysis and interpretation program.
 
 

Psychological treatments and services provided at the center:
 
Diagnosis and Evaluation
 

Clinical Interview
The psychological clinical interview forms a major and pivotal tool in the ongoing work of every psychologist. The psychological interview enables gathering information and constitutes a highly important tool for understanding and deepening the clinical picture obtained from the patient. Sometimes the clinical interview is conducted as the only means for gaining an impression. Sometimes it forms a preliminary part of the full psychological diagnosis.
 
Psychodiagnostic diagnoses
Understanding the patient's inner world is the basis for the design of a treatment and rehabilitation program, and it reflects on the medication determination. The diagnosis enables gaining a through and deep understanding of the patient's inner world, and thus it helps focusing the diagnosis
The psychological evaluation is done with a series of exams.
 
Psychotherapy

 
Individual dynamic psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a treatment method using speech and contact. This is a systematic treatment that requires unique and thorough training, which is assisted by close guidance during the training period. One of the premises of this theory is that the building blocks of which our soul is built are the human relations that were engraved in our mind since birth and throughout our adult life.

 
The dynamic treatment in the hospital setting was found to be beneficial for severe personality disorders, complex and difficult life crises, and also for improving the quality of life of mental patients. All this out of gradually deepening understanding of the initial states of mind during the early stages in a person's development.  This enables a corrective experience of failures and crises in human relations, that occurred in the life of the patient and which impair his quality of life and present function.
 

Hospitalization sometimes offers a first encounter with psychological therapy and with the significance of mental treatment. Under the current trend of shortening hospitalization periods, it is possible that the meetings with the psychologist, at the hospital, will form a preparation for the ongoing psychological treatment that the patient can obtain in the community. The treatment may contribute to the prevention of repeated hospitalization, to improved rehabilitation processes, and to improved quality of life among patients.
 
In addition to its dynamic and professional approach, which forms a central element in the training and work of the psychologists' team, the team also specializes in other treatment methods, and utilizes these according to need -
(Intervention in crisis situations, DBT, cognitive treatment of trauma and post-trauma situations, the SE Approach etc.').
 
Group psychotherapy
Group therapy is the most effective treatment method, which can offer an opportunity to help the patient exit his social isolation and improve his interpersonal skills.

 
The group can offer a corrective experience of understanding, support, belonging and acceptance, at the same time with providing a model for dealing with interpersonal conflicts.

 
Group therapy requires great skills, in addition to knowledge and specific training, and therefore the therapist is guided during his training period.
 
Parent training and family interventions
The psychologists at the wards and clinics guide parents and perform family interventions as appropriate and in accordance with the decisions of the ward's staff. Many times the patient's progress is related with and influenced by the attitude and help of family members.
 

Family intervention and parent guidance requires great training, learning and experiencing.
 
Training
 
Intensive training is intrinsic to the psychologist's training system and during his routine work. The great importance and the great investment by both the guiding and the guided parties rely on recognizing the fact that good therapeutic work is based, in addition to professional knowledge, also on constant trial and self-reflection. The therapeutic work inevitably evokes strong emotional resonance within the patient. Learning and testing these elements is essential for both for understanding the patient and for achieving effective intervention practices.
The psychologists also provide training for students, interns and experts in the various disciplines of mental health. Medical interns and other paramedical staff members.
 
Training for psychology students at Tirat Carmel Hospital:
 
Undergraduate students of Psychology (Volunteering at the youth ward)
 
The Volunteering Project at the youth ward was established out of a need to fill the void that creates after the completion of the educational activity hours in the ward.

 
The youth ward is a heterogeneous ward that hosts teenage inpatients, who besides their illness, are engaged in the content characteristic of adolescence and who often yearn for a relationship.

 
The volunteers arrive at the ward once a week, for three hours, to meet and stay with the patients, whether by games, activities, trips, and talks.
The lack of formality in their role and their young age, allows students to establish a unique and direct relationship, in which they are seen by the adolescents as if they were their older siblings.
 

The volunteers go through training every other week for one and a half hours, provided by a psychologist from the ward, during which they present their doubts, feelings and understanding, while observing and learning.
 
Undergraduate students of Psychology ("Field Experience" pattern)
 
Every year a group of about 10-15 students are accepted for one academic year at the Haifa University. Each student is assigned to one patient of the hospital and escorts him throughout the year. The patients come from the youth day care facility, Children's Clinic, and Adults' Clinic, as well as from the inpatient wards. The goal is to form a social relationship, through joint activity, during which a significant relationship is formed between the student and the patient.
Hospital psychologists guide the work of students with close mentoring, in small groups. Students and patients both gain a lot from the relationship formed within this framework. For the student this is a unique opportunity to encounter for the first time, and to experience a relationship with therapy reference. For the patient this is a young and unique target for social skills development.

 
This experience is highly important for the professional development of the students, as future psychologists.
 
Graduate students (within the "practicum")
 
The "Practicum" - a framework offering field experience for students from various clinical disciplines. The student is assigned to one of the hospital's clinics or wards. Each student is guided by the psychologist of the ward to which he was assigned, and by a psychologist that personally guides him. The student undertakes to experience during the practicum year with running and analyzing several psycho-diagnostic exams, with close guidance. In addition he must also treat two to three patients during the year. The student is fully integrated within his unit, and participates in ward meetings, and in its ongoing work. The work of the students provides a significant contribution to the unit in which they work, and the student himself acquires an experience which is highly significant to his professional qualification in the future.
  

Advising ward staffs

 
Work in a psychiatric hospital requires special dedication on the part of its employees and can be very rewarding for them. However, the constant exposure, in very high doses, to the personal tragedies of the patients, requires great mental sacrifices from the caregivers. The opportunity granted to the ward's team to dedicate some time, under the guidance of a psychologist, to work on itself, as a team, and as individuals, can improve the understanding of the profound effects the staff is exposed to, and can greatly improve the staff function and the efficiency of the treatment provided to inpatients.