CNN reported last month that Israeli mental health services are struggling to deal with the mass trauma of October 7. Hundreds of volunteers are filling in to support the families of those killed, injured, or taken hostage. “The mental health situation of everyone is getting worse,” Dr Shapira Berman, a psychoanalyst at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told CNN.
As well as the questionnaires, the researchers behind the study gave smartwatches to 5000 participants and monitored their mental and physical activity. Data shows a significant decline in steps taken each day, as well as the quality and length of participants’ sleep.
Danny Horesh, a leading researcher in traumatic stress, told Haaretz earlier this month that Israel is in a state of “compounded trauma”. “I am referring here to the concept of indirect trauma, in which much of what I experience is something that happened to someone I know,” he said. “We are a small, densely populated country, so almost everyone knows at least one person who has been harmed by the war in some way”.
