The health care eligibilities of internally displaced people
The health care eligibilities of internally displaced people
The health care eligibilities of internally displaced people
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Self-Care to Be Able to Help Children
During emergencues, parents have a twofold challenge: function and cope with the situation themselves, so they can support and communicate the situation to their children. This way you can take… -
Staying Home with the Children
Prolonged stay at home with the children may increase both our stress and our children's. Important guidelines for prolonged stay at home and for relieving children's stress and trauma. -
Child and Teenager Online Safety
Especially during war and emergency situations, like the one that we are currently experiencing, the internet provides us with escapism and pleasure, but it may also present us with challenges… -
Screens in Wartime
Everything you need to know about screen time, both during emergency situations and in general. Pros, cons and what is the recommended screen time for every age group. -
Leaving Children Home Alone
According to law, you can leave children alone at home from the age of 6, but it is recommended not to leave them alone before the age of 9, as… -
Parents in Active Military Service
How you can help your children cope with the recruitment of a parent to military service. It is important to remember that recruitment causes pressure but it also provides an…
Self-Care to Be Able to Help Children
During wartime and emergency situations, parents are faced with a double challenge: functioning and coping with the situation themselves and supporting their children and communicating the situation to them. Much of our children's ability to feel safe depends on, what else, us as parents. Studies show that parents play a key role in ensuring the mental health, protection, and relief of anxiety phenomena in children of all ages.
So, how should we take care of ourselves?
- Keeping our body healthy: remember to eat and drink healthy food and beverages. Try to find a way to take a couple of minutes off for yourself to gather your strength. Take a few deep breaths and engage in some form of physical exercise. These can help, even if you only spend a couple of minutes at home.
- Staying in touch: are we hiding in the bomb shelter, and we're scared? Are we anxious? We can send text messages to check what is going on with other important people in our lives and to feel that we're not alone. It helps (it is also important not to panic if someone doesn't answer us). It doesn't mean that something's wrong, only that they don't answer. If possible, it is recommended to meet other people in a safe place (like in a house where there's a bomb shelter either in the apartment or in the building), spend some time together, share the responsibilities of taking care of the children, and do whatever you can do to feel more relaxed and at ease.
- Staying active: In order to relieve anxiety, it is important that we do not stay idle, simply because activities keep our minds off something. Being active can be a cognitive-emotional activity, like imagining that we are somewhere else (like on vacation), some form of sports activity, or simply physical activities such as arranging the apartment's bomb shelter, playing board games, organizing activities for the people sharing the bomb shelter with us, holding trivia games, playing charades, or even talking about a pleasant family vacation.
- Maintaining a regular routine: children feel safer when life's little routines continue unchanged, and so do we. It is important to get dressed, brush our teeth, and allocate specific times for games, meals, and rest.
- Avoiding screens: it is preferable that you do not leave the television and the radio on all day at home. Younger children see and hear just like older children, but they do not understand quite as much, which may serve to elevate their anxiety level.
- Following the method for providing emotional first aid: if one of the parents at home is slightly calmer than the other, they should take the lead with the children. They may also assist the other parent to calm down using the method for providing emotional first aid. You may want to watch our videos and learn how to assist. It is not complicated but rather easy, actually.
- Seeking help: it is important that we do not ignore our feelings when we are feeling poorly. We should acknowledge that and seek assistance. We should stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and seek help. Even if I am spatially alone, technology allows me to seek help and be with someone else by WhatsApp, over cell phone, or via Zoom.
- Seeking professional help: if the actions above do not help, you should seek professional help and call one of the emotional support hotlines. Do not be shy and make the call. There are good people on the other side of the line. There are hotlines operated by the HMOs and by associations such as ERAN or NATAL, as well as hotlines in numerous languages. The people on the other side of the line are trained professionals; they understand, and they do not judge. We are all human beings, and distress is a human experience. In addition to emotional support hotlines, there are also physical emotional support centers located in bomb shelters in hospitals and community-based resilience centers, staffed by professionals.
List of emotional support hotlines -
Adult sleep in wartime on Efsharibari (Ministry of Health's website for active and healthy living)
The situation is tough, but there are steps we can take. The most important thing is to address our feelings instead of ignoring them.
Well-being at Efsharibari (Ministry of Health's website for active and healthy living)