In response to rising levels of mental health disorders in Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and resulting three years of war, the University of Haifa is launching what it calls Israel’s first national hub for teaching suicide care, backed by $8.8 million from the Overlake Fund over five years, the school exclusively told eJewishPhilanthropy.

The National Training Center for Suicide Care expects to train about 4,500 clinicians and front-line workers within five years. It will also reach 12,000 more people in local communities, teaching them to spot red flags and refer those in danger for treatment. Over the same period, it plans to launch some 80 courses and forge ties with 15 large organizations.

“This will be a national center that will change the way communities and even the whole society think about suicide, treat suicide and do suicide care,” Yossi Levi-Belz, the center’s founding academic director and a professor in the University of Haifa’s School of Therapy, Counseling and Human Development, told eJP.

The Vermont-based Overlake Fund is led by William L. Gottesman and his wife, Debra L. Gottesman, according to IRS filings. William Gottesman is the son of the late billionaire investor David Gottesman and philanthropist Ruth L. Gottesman. The fund declined to comment on the donation.

The initiative comes in the wake of the national trauma of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the ensuing three years of war, which have seen a marked rise in PTSD diagnoses, along with a slew of other mental health disorders. 

Research by Levi-Belz and colleagues, including Columbia University’s Yuval Neria, found that nearly 30% of Israeli adults showed probable PTSD a month after the attacks, up from roughly 16%. Probable depression reached almost 45%, up from approximately 31%, and probable anxiety hit nearly 43%, up from almost 25%.

“This gift reflects a shared commitment to one of the most urgent challenges facing Israeli society,” University of Haifa President Gur Alroey said in a statement.

The war has also helped remove the taboo around seeking help, Levi-Belz said. “Stigma about trauma and PTSD is much lower than before the war and people with acute stress or acute depression are more likely to go into therapy than before.”

The country’s overall suicide rate hasn’t climbed, according to the university, but follow-up studies have detected more suicidal thinking among vulnerable groups, notably combat reservists. Some studies have also found that suicide rates significantly increase in the years following a disaster, and not necessarily during the traumatic period.

Many Israeli clinicians know some aspects of suicide prevention, Levi-Belz said, but the field has never been made a national priority. “Today many clinicians say, ‘I don’t know how to treat it, so I will not accept it for therapy,’” he told eJP. The goal: fewer patients falling through the cracks.

The center will spend its first year laying groundwork, including developing a clinical model meant to explain why one person slides into a suicidal crisis after trauma while another doesn’t. Clinicians could then match proven treatments to each patient. Levi-Belz said the center also aims to bring new mental health professionals into the suicide prevention field. “It cannot be only me and several of my friends. We need other leaders.”

Trainees will rehearse conversations with AI-generated patients in crisis and get real-time critiques, using simulators Haifa researchers designed. The lab will add virtual reality scenarios and professional actors, and an online platform will open the courses to clinicians nationwide.

The rollout begins in Israel’s North and South. Social workers, nurses, physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists make up the core audience, alongside educators, youth workers and others who routinely meet people in crisis. The center plans to work with government ministries, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s healthcare organizations.

Levi-Belz hopes a later grant will fund “stabilization homes,” residential units for people at suicide risk that offer more support than home but less than a hospital. Existing facilities of that kind often refuse at-risk patients, he said.

“It’s a very, very emotional decision to trust us with such a huge amount of money,” he said of the donors. “I take on an enormous amount of responsibility.”

Levi-Belz stopped short of promising quick results. “I cannot say to you that next year there will be a decline in the suicide rate,” he said. “But eventually, I think it will happen.”