Accelerating National Healing
A Strategic Framework for building Israel’s Mental Health Resilience
Israel’s next phase of recovery requires a coordinated national strategy: strengthening treatment for those who need care now, building prevention and resilience for the future, and creating the system infrastructure needed for long-term healing.
Two tracks. Shared system enablers.
One national path toward resilience
Track A
Treatment and Care
Strengthening the mental health system to meet immediate and near-term needs.
Track B
Prevention & Resilience
Building the capacity of individuals, families, communities, and institutions to prevent crisis and strengthen long-term resilience.
Why Israel Needs a Coordinated Strategy
Israel is facing a mental health and trauma challenge at national scale. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are living with the psychological impact of October 7, the war, displacement, loss, uncertainty, and prolonged national stress.The response cannot rely only on more treatment after people reach crisis.
Israel needs a dual-track strategy that expands and improves care now while building prevention and resilience for the future.
National scale
The psychological impact of October 7, war, displacement, grief, and prolonged uncertainty requires system-wide action.
Shared coordination
Government, HMOs, hospitals, NGOs, researchers, funders, and communities need to work from a common framework.
Long-term resilience
The goal is to move from fragmented emergency response to coordinated recovery and future preparedness.
THE STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
Three Connected Elements One Coordinated Approach
ICAR’s proposed national strategy is built around three connected elements that must work together to accelerate national healing.
TRACK A
Treatment and Care
Strengthen Israel’s mental health system to meet immediate and near-term needs for individuals and communities through better capacity, access, quality, and innovation.
Expand and Diversify Care Capacity
Create more pathways to appropriate care across different levels of need.
Coordinate navigation for high-trauma populations through clearer referral pathways.
Create alternatives to hospitalization, including crisis stabilization and short-term residential options.
Expand specialized capacity for PTSD, addiction, eating disorders, complicated grief, and trauma-related conditions.
Advance Equity and Access
Ensure care reaches the periphery, minority communities, and high-risk populations.
Prioritize expansion in underserved geographies and communities.
Invest in culturally competent care, translation, training, and tailored outreach.
Track disparities through shared equity indicators and national measurement frameworks.
Research and Innovation
Use research, evidence, and innovation to improve outcomes and scale what works.
Support applied mental health research focused on trauma, resilience, and system efficiency.
Build partnerships among universities, HMOs, NGOs, technology partners, and public systems.
Evaluate mental health technologies and new models before scaling them nationally.
TRACK B
Prevention and Resilience
Build Israel’s societal immune system by strengthening individuals, families, schools, workplaces, communities, and institutions before distress becomes crisis.
Expand Psychoeducation
Normalize help-seeking and give people practical tools for coping, support, and early intervention.
Launch national campaigns to reduce stigma and normalize help-seeking.
Equip schools, youth movements, workplaces, and local authorities with simple referral pathways.
Strengthen digital platforms and family-centered interventions.
Build a Trauma-Informed Society
Help everyday institutions recognize trauma, respond appropriately, and connect people to support earlier.
Integrate psychological first aid and trauma awareness into schools, workplaces, and local authorities.
Create community resilience networks led by trained facilitators.
Support peer networks for bereaved families, trauma survivors, and affected communities.
Real-Time Surveillance and Early Detection
Use shared data to identify rising risks early and coordinate rapid response.
Develop a National Mental Health Surveillance Dashboard.
Integrate signals from HMOs, helplines, hospitals, NGOs, and community services.
Create rapid response protocols across ministries and communities.
THE FOUNDATION
System Enablers Support the Whole Strategy
These enablers are not another program track. They are what connect, support, and strengthen both tracks, allowing treatment and prevention to function as one coordinated national response.
THE SUPPORTING FOUNDATION
One coordinated, measurable response
Governance and coordination, quality standards, workforce capacity, and data and evidence infrastructure make the two tracks more effective, coordinated, measurable, and sustainable.
Governance
Quality
Workforce
Data
Governance and Coordination
Align leadership, funding, oversight, and service capacity across sectors.
Create inter-ministerial coordination across relevant government bodies.
Align public, nonprofit, academic, philanthropic, and community actors around shared priorities.
Develop a real-time national map of available services and capacity.
Quality Standards and Continuous Improvement
Ensure services are not only available, but high-quality, measurable, and continuously improving.
Establish a national quality framework for mental health services.
Use shared intake, outcome, access, waiting time, and satisfaction measures.
Create data feedback loops that guide improvement and resource allocation.
Workforce and Capacity
Grow and support the workforce needed to meet rising mental health needs.
Use a stratified model of care that matches qualifications to case complexity.
Expand training pipelines and map trauma-trained professionals.
Protect caregiver well-being through supervision and burnout prevention support.
Data and Evidence Infrastructure
Create the data systems and evidence base needed to guide decisions, investment, and improvement.
Develop data-sharing standards and interoperability agreements across sectors.
Expand open-access research databases and centralize learning.
Integrate research, evaluation, and program design into every funded initiative.
HOW IT WORKS TOGETHER
From Fragmented Response to Coordinated Recovery
A coordinated system should be able to identify needs, map capacity, direct people to the right level of care, invest in prevention, measure outcomes, and scale what works. This requires every intervention to be scalable, cost-effective, measurable, and coordinated across the system.
01
Treat current need
Stabilize people and communities facing urgent or near-term mental health challenges.
02
Prevent future burden
Build resilience, emotional literacy, and early support before distress escalates.
03
Connect the system
Use shared governance, standards, workforce, and data to align action.
04
Build resilience
Create a stronger, healthier, more inclusive mental health system for Israel.
LONG-TERM VISION
A resilient, inclusive, stratified mental health system for Israel in times of crisis and calm.
By advancing care for those who need support today, building prevention and resilience for tomorrow, and reinforcing the systems that connect them, Israel can transform its mental health landscape.
Success will depend on long-term investment, cross-sector collaboration, and a commitment to equity, ensuring that every person, in every community, has access to help and hope.
ICAR’s Role
ICAR Collective serves as a strategic backbone for this work. We convene government, philanthropy, civil society, and experts to align priorities and resources; design scalable system solutions; pilot and evaluate innovative approaches; and translate evidence into national policy and practice.
Our role is not to replace existing actors, but to strengthen the system as a whole by ensuring coordination, accountability, and long-term impact.
