‘IDF falls short in treatment of mental health’
The IDF’s treatment of soldiers in the field of mental health is insufficient, the State Comptroller’s Report said Monday.
According to official statistics, one out of four soldiers uses the army’s mental-health services and meets with either a psychiatrist or mental-health officer during their service.
The IDF Medical Corps failed to establish how long a soldier needs to wait to see a mental-health officer, the previous State Comptroller’s Report said. The report released on Monday said this deficiency had been fixed but was never published, which essentially means soldiers still have to wait a long time to see a mental-health official.
The “Mental Health Division should revise the period of time that soldiers need to wait to see a mental-health officer via thorough and professional work, which will include the damages that could be done due during this long wait,” the State Comptroller’s Report said.
In another section of the report, the state comptroller found deficiencies in the way the IDF handles firing ranges. About 35% of the country’s land (excluding the West Bank) is closed territory designated for firing ranges, the report said.
The IDF’s ability to close any territory it needs for exercises led to uncertainty in the planning field and harmed the planning procedures on the land, it said.
There is a delay of five years in converting some areas from being designated for firing ranges because the IDF did not adequately remove duds and used ammunition.
The way the IDF communicates with the public regarding entering these areas is insufficient, and there is no website that contains updated information regarding this issue, the report said Some of the firing ranges are in nature reserves or in archaeological sites that are occasionally open to the public.
In the response to the report’s findings about mental-health deficiencies, the IDF said: “The IDF is currently working on this topic and is learning from the mistakes of the past. The comptroller’s advice that the waiting time for a mental-health officer will not be more than four weeks will soon become an IDF order. However, we should note that the waiting time today is less than four weeks, and in 92% of the cases, the average waiting time is 10 days.
Regarding the firing ranges area, the IDF said: “As of today, there are almost no areas that are not officially firing ranges and are closed for special exercises.
“Information regarding opening firing ranges to the public ahead of holidays is being published by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and can be found on the IDF website. Useful information is also given to community security officers and local municipalities. The IDF website contains phone numbers that can be used to contact the IDF directly.”