Founded in 1969, the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) is one of Israel’s major academic institutions with over 5,000 students on three campuses. The college specializes in high-tech engineering, industrial management, business administration, and life and health sciences.
JCT’s mission is to produce highly skilled professionals for Israel’s rapidly developing industries who possess a strong commitment to Jewish values, the Jewish people, and the State of Israel. Dedicated to strengthening Jerusalem and responding to Israel’s socioeconomic needs, JCT empowers diverse segments of Israeli society—who would otherwise not have access to higher education—to become contributing members of Israel’s workforce.
As part of its efforts to respond to the needs of the community, JCT is partnering with Boston’s McLean Hospital to install Deconstructing Stigma: Changing Attitudes About Mental Health (DS) on three of its campuses.
This exhibit, featuring people from across Israel who live with mental health and substance use disorders themselves or in their families, is intended to raise awareness and encourage honest conversations about mental health.
Why Is McLean Collaborating in Israel?
Stuart Katz, CEO of TAL Tours and founding director of OGEN – Association for the Advancement of Mental Health in Israel, saw McLean’s Deconstructing Stigma display at Logan Airport in 2018 while a family member was receiving care at McLean.
Inspired by what he had seen, he contacted the hospital about finding ways in which we could work together to address Israeli mental health. McLean has since partnered with him to help bring mental health education and anti-stigma programming to his home country of Israel.
“From my perspective, the problem of mental health stigma is worse in Israel than the U.S. because of the culture, the religion, and the ‘macho’ attitude,” Katz explained. However, he said that attitudes are shifting and enthusiasm for battling stigma is on the rise.
“We are excited to see continued increased interest in addressing it, which is very positive,” he said.
Thanks to the work done by Katz and our partners, we now have more than 20 Israeli lived experience stories on the Deconstructing Stigma website and in exhibits in the country.
“We are honored to have partnered with volunteers from Israel, who chose to be part of Deconstructing Stigma and share their stories in hopes of increasing mental health awareness, reducing stigma, and providing hope to individuals and families affected by mental health challenges,” said Scott J. O’Brien, director of Education Outreach for McLean and co-founder of Deconstructing Stigma.
“This campaign is about all of us. It’s about recognizing that each one of us—at some point in our lives—will experience mental health challenges. It’s about accepting that there is no shame in living with mental health conditions, that we are not alone in our struggles, and that it is OK to ask for help.”
Collaborating With JCT
McLean Hospital’s Education Outreach team began its work in Israel in 2020, meeting with dozens of universities, organizations, and municipalities. As part of this engagement, the team met with leadership of JCT and forged a plan to bring DS, as well as an innovative research project related to our stigma reduction work, to the university.
Though the project was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the JCT DS exhibit opened in the fall of 2022.
The JCT iteration of Deconstructing Stigma actively engaged JCT fourth-year nursing students from Ofek, JCT’s special track for Haredi female students. These students were chosen to work on the campaign with the hope of making them agents of change in Israeli society.
Participating students:
- Studied theories and research regarding the stigmatization associated with mental health issues
- Conducted meetings and conversations with people from varied backgrounds who have been affected by mental health disorders
- Identified community members from diverse backgrounds to share their stories for the campaign
- Planned and designed the campaign with the community members
- Found potential sites to present the installations
- Created and promoted the installations
Changing Attitudes About Mental Health
“I kept getting messages that I didn’t really have a disease or a condition that required real treatment, so I stopped believing there was any point in asking for help. It felt like I was broken and there was no way to fix it,” said Noam, who lives in Afula, Israel.
“My family is now more understanding of what I am going through. I’ve learned to ask them for help, and they’ve realized how it can be done.”
Noam volunteers for Deconstructing Stigma because she believes that it is important to send a message to the Israeli community that even if someone seems “OK,” they may still be living with a mental health condition and may need help.
“Just because I am able to do things and be successful isn’t proof that I don’t have mental health issues,” said Noam. “Even when things are good, it is still a struggle.”
Each of the volunteers from Israel and beyond shares their story to encourage others to seek care and to know they are not alone. Though each person is unique, and their story is personal, the experiences of coping with mental health concerns and stigma are similar.
The goal of Deconstructing Stigma is to share the individual voices and, by doing so, highlight the commonality that all of us share—mental health affects everyone.
Deconstructing Stigma Research Project
JCT students are also carrying out a research project in collaboration with David H. Rosmarin, PhD, ABPP, from McLean Hospital and Steven Tzvi Pirutinsky, PhD, from Touro College.
The students are working in groups under the guidance of JCT’s Zvika Orr, PhD, receiving training on methodologies, reviewing literature, formulating research questions and hypotheses, data gathering and analysis, drawing conclusions, and preparing a research report.
The project aims to study the campaign’s impact on the lives of the participants who share their stories as well as on the attitudes of JCT’s students and staff toward mental health.
JCT’s experience in this space derives largely from the Lev Bakehila Community Project, the college’s flagship civic engagement program. Founded in 2015, the program enables JCT students, faculty, and staff to promote the rights of people with disabilities in areas such as housing, education, employment, accessibility, due process, and equality.
Facts About Mental Health in Israel
In 2015, Israel reformed its approach to mental health by integrating mental health care into primary care.
A study looked at attitudes around mental health six months after the reform effort went into effect. Among the findings:
- Most individuals still felt uncomfortable seeking referral to mental health services through the public health system
- Arab Israelis have lower levels of comfort in seeking mental health care than Jewish Israelis
- More public education regarding mental health is needed to address stigma
- Only 13% of respondents to another recent study said they would seek professional treatment if they felt anxious or tense but would seek help immediately if they felt they were in crisis due to a “severe” psychiatric condition
Get Support
Many organizations throughout Israel offer support and services to individuals and families in need. Find Israel-specific resources.
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