Hadash: Responsibility for Mental Health Care Must Remain in the Hands of the Government

Making an appearance at the Ministry of Health for the second time in a month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the Health Ministry portfolio said during his visit on Wednesday, July 1 – the first day of the implementation of the country’s reformed mental health program: “We all have psyches and have to make sure they are healthy.” First proposed in 1989 by a state commission headed by the PM’s aunt, then-Supreme Court justice Shoshana Netanyahu, the reform transfers responsibility for mental health care from the Ministry of Health to the four public health funds.

Dozens of social workers and psychologists demonstrated on Wednesday,  July 1, outside the Ministry of Health headquarters against the newly-implemented mental health reform.

Dozens of social workers and psychologists demonstrated on Wednesday, July 1, outside the Ministry of Health headquarters against the newly-implemented mental health reform. (Photo: Histadrut)

During Netanyahu visit, dozens of social workers and psychologists demonstrated outside the ministry headquarters following their union’s announcing a work dispute over implementation of the reform, claiming that negotiations to secure the positions of these professionals in the future and ensure the success of the reform itself have still not been completed.

Hadash MK Dov Khenin (Joint List), who chairs the Public Health Lobby in the Knesset and who is a leading opponent of the reform and the privatization of public health, declared that “responsibility for mental health care must remain in the hands of the government.”