Youth-friendly mental health services in Jerusalem

Fondation Dora is supporting the start-up of a headspace Center in Jerusalem operated by ENOSH, the Israeli Mental Health Association.

headspace is an innovative mental health model dedicated to improving the mental, social and emotional wellbeing of young people aged 12-25 who experience mild to moderate mental health disorders. The service is branded youth-friendly and as such, provides a soft entry point that is effective in attracting distressed young people into the service without labelling or prematurely "medicalizing" the situation. The methodology is inspired by the successful model used by headspace Australia(www.headspace.org.au). 

Youth mental health is one of Israel's biggest health and economic challenges. Overall, it accounts for 60-70% of the non-fatal disease burden among 15-24 year-olds. These disorders appear at a critical developmental age and lead to individual and family-related distress, poor academic achievements, school/college dropout, unemployment, long-term disabilities and even early fatality. 

In 2014, ENOSH launched its first headspace Center in Bat Yam, Israel. The Center has handled over 1’700 enquiries; provided in-take assessments for more than 1’200 young people, short-term individual therapy for more than 765 young people and engaged over 245 young people in group therapy. 

We expect that in its first year, the new Jerusalem Center will serve approximately 200 young people aged 12-25 as well as be a resource for hundreds of welfare, healthcare and education professionals. Implementing the program in Jerusalem requires adaptations to suit the city’s mixed population.

ENOSH’s mission is to support the rehabilitation and full community participation of people with a psychiatric disability, to eradicate stigma and discriminatory practices associated with mental health disorders, and to advance the rights of people with mental health conditions. In recent years, ENOSH has also embarked on early intervention and prevention programs in order to achieve mental wellbeing.    

Fondation Dora has supported this programme since 2019.