Mental Health Tributes

In Lieu of Mommy

Yona is the wife of a schizophrenia patient. Life hasn’t been easy for her. Dealing with mental illness is a frightening nightmare only made worse by the loneliness. Mental illness is not something you share with the neighbors. On the outside, she is a bubbly mother of a large family, discussing the woes of a washing machine breakdown with another mother as they sit on the park bench together. On the inside, however, she is slowly falling apart because of a different type of breakdown – the breakdown of a strong, supportive husband, the breakdown of a family. Yona is a heroine, trying to go it alone but she worries how long she can go on. When will she herself break down?

Bravely, she had made her way to the Ezer Mizion office. Maybe. Maybe they can help a bit. What she received was so much more than she had hoped for. Continue reading In Lieu of Mommy

How Do You Do It?

Vacation. Just the word alone conjures up feelings of anticipation, happiness and relaxation of tension. Many studies have shown the value of a vacation even for those leading successful, fulfilling lives. And for those that are not? Those that are battling the unimaginable challenges of mental health?

They experience a general feeling of well-being, increased self-esteem and a strong development of social bonds after taking part in the Ezer Mizion Mental Health Division Annual Retreat which gives them the positive energy to fight their battles in the months ahead. Continue reading How Do You Do It?

A Letter Meant for You, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

I had to write to express how deeply impressed I was by the “Heroes’ Retreat” that Ezer Mizion ran for people struggling with mental illness. Thank you to the organization and dedicated workers for their tremendous efforts and attention to every detail, all in the goal of bringing joy to the emotionally ill and providing them with positive experiences, so as to give them faith in their ability to cope successfully with their challenges.

I heard this from many relatives of mentally ill individuals who took part in the retreat, but it is hard to describe what I saw with my own eyes. Unfortunately, we are going through a very difficult time with our son. For the past three years, he has barely stepped out of the house, and he refused to go to this retreat, too. Continue reading A Letter Meant for You, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

New Hope for People Struggling with Mental Illness

Professional seminar for the chareidi community, arranged by the Ezer Mizion Mental Health Family Support Center
pr mental illness flower MB900185197 About 600 people took part in the annual seminar of Ezer Mizion’s Family Counseling Center on the subject “A Bridge of Hope.” The seminar discussed the dilemmas of hope, the opportunities it offers, and the wonderful results that follow when you build up inner strength by taking the route of hope. Continue reading New Hope for People Struggling with Mental Illness

Uncalled for Anxiety

Letters to the Editor – Inyan Tziburi

Anxiety from Yamim Noraim

Oct. 20, 2014

Dear Public Interest section:

It is a few days before Rosh Hashanah, and I have finally decided to take paper and pen and write – write to everyone who, like me, is overwhelmed by anxiety. Not fear of the Divine Judgment, but fear of the harsh future that will be decreed upon me for the next year, G-d forbid. I tremble in fear from the red mark on the highways, and am terrified that I or someone in my family has been marked for tragedy. I wait with inner impatience for the Yamim Noraim – and they are really terrible days for me – to be over, and for the gleeful days of Sukkot to come and with their joy, silence the storm raging within my heart.

Another year passes, and yet another, and for me, as early as the sunny month of Tamuz, Elul with all its fears, anxieties and nerves, begins to darken my state of mind. I become an edgy, moody mother, wracked by guilt feelings. Continue reading Uncalled for Anxiety

‘Who Never Forgets You’

Thank you note from an employee at the
Mental Health Rehabilitation Catering Service
to her “colleagues” at Ezer Mizion

To the wonderful staff

I work with you, and greatly enjoy
your wonderful attitude,
The help and support
that each of you give.

And above all –
“Ezer Mizion” –
which I truly feel is
an “Ezer” – a help.

You all help people, and I see it every day in your department.

Best wishes for much success and a pleasant vacation.

Miri K.

(who never forgets you)

The Time We Spend Together

Thank You from Mothers of Children with Mental Health Issues to their Support Group Leader

Dear Rivka, Ezer Mizion, and all those involved,

The time we spend together is such a warm, pleasant experience,
A weekly oasis, a breath of fresh air,
A station where we can fuel up with energy,
An opportunity to fill our lagging engines with love and tranquility,
A place that has an answer to our every question.

Have we been divinely fated to scale an impossibly steep mountain – Continue reading The Time We Spend Together

We Were Saved

We wish to thank G-d for sending us his wonderful agents at the Ezer Mizion Nativ Mental Health Family Counseling Center and for enabling us to benefit from their assistance.

Without going into details, we will just , say that our family was in serious distress and at our wit’s end trying to cope with a problem whose significance we did not understand.

Thanks to the efficient help of the people at the Center, the tragedy that could have befallen our family, G-d forbid, was prevented.

For the benefit of the public, the Center’s phone number is
03-614-4535

With thanks
C.L. Bnei Brak

Expressing Our Thanks

Tel Aviv University
Sackler Faculty of Medicine
The Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions
Department of Nursing

February 22, 2004

Ms. Yehudit Tisona
Ezer Mizion Social Worker
21 Ezra Street
Bnei Brak

Shalom!

Re: Expressing Our Thanks

In the framework of the “Women, Health and Family” Seminar, a part of the curriculum of the Masters Program in Nursing at the Tel-Aviv University, integrate educational field trips are integrated regularly. During this course, mentored by Dr. Mali Ehrenfeld, we had the privilege of visiting Ezer Mizion’s rehabilitative framework for the emotionally ill in Bnei Brak. In the course of this field trip, we visited the rehabilitative workplace and observed the women’s wonderful activity under the marvelous guidance of Mrs. Sarah Kriel and Mrs. Yehudit Tisona.

We spoke with the women and learned how important this supportive framework is for them. One of the women told us what a helpless situation she was in after going through a post-partum depression crisis which left her absolutely non-functional. She is in the Ezer Mizion program for two years now. The therapist described to us the stages of her rehabilitation, the tremendous assistance she received and the extent of her improvement, both in the area of health and rehabilitation, as a result of the structured, supportive framework that enables her to feel she “belongs” and can actualize herself and resume functioning as a wife and mother in her family unit.

We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the window you opened for us, enabling us to see this special population segment from close up, and giving us the opportunity to learn first-hand of your notable initiative and wonderful, supportive work.

We are all certain that this crucial project will continue to grow and prosper, and serve as an example for many others to follow.

Thank you so much!

Student Group
Dr. Mali Ehrenfeld – Certified Head of the Program

CC: Mr. Yechiel Shereshevsky, Rehabilitation Director
Health Department, 2 Ben Tabai Street, Jerusalem