Israeli experts have been training French first responders since the kosher supermarket attack earlier this year. Now the program is being broadened as France faces a terror wave.
Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) Director Talia Levanon tells ISRAEL21c that Israel’s unfortunate experience and expertise in the psychological effects of terror bring a critical perspective to foreign professionals more used to dealing with isolated incidents.
As France is suffering such attacks on a more frequent basis, the ITC and Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) are stepping up efforts to train clinicians there – even as a wave of terror in Israel is keeping the ITC very busy at home.
“Like people in Israel, the French are getting ready for long-time duress, which requires a different approach,” explains Levanon. “In Israel, we know there is no safe place or time and I think now people in France understand this. They understand they are very vulnerable.”
The ITC will bring France its community-based approach to healing, resilience and training, adapting it to local needs and culture in order to put effective preparedness and response mechanisms in place.
There is more that ITC would like to teach the French based on what works in Israel and in other countries where ITC has responded to emotional fallout of traumatic incidents, including Haiti, Japan, the Philippines, India and the United States.
Read more at Israel 21c