 Hello friends and subscribers a very warm welcome back to my YouTube channel This is Daniel Rose Hill bringing you this video today from Jerusalem on the 31st of December 2023 Which means of course that in a matter of hours, it's going to be New Year's Eve Now New Year's and New Year's Day is not quite as big a thing in Israel as in other countries That's because we have our own calendar the Jewish calendar, which has its own conception of New Year's nevertheless Israel being part of the modern world We do have the civil civilian slash Gregorian calendar and there will be some New Year's parties going on Although it's going to be a little bit subdued because you know the country is at war I've been reflecting a bit lately on what I achieved content-wise in 2023 And what I might be able to do a little bit differently going forward So something that I am doing is I'm going to be duplicating the audio from my YouTube videos At least the ones that make sense to be listened to as a podcast and crossing those over onto my podcast It's called the Daniel Rose Hill podcast and it's available on Google podcast Spotify Apple podcast and just about anywhere else where you get your podcast It's being hosted on a app called Spreaker So if you happen to be using Spreaker for getting your podcast You can find it listed on their podcast directory as well as I was going through my videos for some reason I thought I need to do another video about mental health because it's such an important topic And I wanted to talk particularly rather than talk about mental health and its entirety I wanted to talk about three specific conditions that I can talk to from firsthand experience because I have all of them That is anxiety depression and ADHD I'm making this video really for people who are thinking about moving to Israel Considering making Aliyah because I know there's a lot of people in that category at the moment As well perhaps as people who have just moved here and haven't yet got around to having conversations with their doctors About how to get or continue treatment for one of these disorders Just want to state at the start because it's responsible to do so I'm not a mental health practitioner, I'm simply someone living in Israel with these conditions So although I can give some general information on how to get treatment for these mental health problems in Israel I'm not a doctor and therefore you should really go to your doctor for getting the actual treatment First thing to say although this isn't specific to anxiety depression or ADHD Is that Israel has a pretty good healthcare system based around a public model By law every Israeli citizen needs to be registered to one of four health maintenance organizations The acronym for that is HMO and is called in in Hebrew Kupat Cholim So by law you need to be a member of one of four Kupot Cholim Those four are Makabi, Mayuchedet, Klalit and Leomit I always forget the last one and generally you can get the vast majority of healthcare Including mental healthcare through one of through your Kupat Cholim that includes doctors visits Referrals to specialists if required as well as getting the medications that were prescribed to you by your doctor Another important general thing to know about healthcare in Israel and mental healthcare specifically is that psychiatry is under enormous pressure Like in I think most parts of the world there simply aren't enough psychiatrists to go around So if you have a very common mood disorder like anxiety and depression I was going to say and ADHD but ADHD is not classified as a mood disorder But it is a very common mental health problem Then you will find in general that the system prefers for you to access treatment through your family doctor A common concern that I've seen among potential immigrants to Israel or people who are here Is this question like can my family doctor prescribe an SSRI? A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor if you're taking something like lexaprof or zoloft or prozac For your depression or even wellbuterin which is licensed and used in Israel for this indication Then you can actually get all those drugs through your family doctor You don't actually need to see a psychiatrist You can if you want push the see a psychiatrist if you feel that your Condition isn't adequately managed through your family doctor Or you simply think you want to see a psychiatrist or have a need You can do so but generally I find that often you'll go to a psychiatrist and they're like This is kind of something that the family doctor really should be managing So I like to think that psychiatrists are you know, obviously the experts in prescribing medications But frequently you can actually get everything you need through your family doctor In terms of ADHD so it is possible to be diagnosed and treated for ADHD as an adult I know that because this is something that I've personally been through in terms of medications We have on the market here. There's actually a really useful website You can look up to see exactly which drugs are used in Israel and even which formulations are used and even the manufacture It's a government database that I'm not sure a lot of people Patients know about but I really recommend it if you're thinking about moving to Israel And you're not sure if you're anti-depressant or anti anxiety medication or ADHD drug is used here You can simply put the chemical name into that search database. I'll put a link in the description It's super useful to know about although your doctor will have the exact same information Israel being a different geography the trade names and the drugs used here are not necessarily the exact same As in the u.s. So for instance lexapro is an extremely common trade name for eschatalopram in the u.s Whereas here the most commonly prescribed form of eschatalopram is called ciprolex Spelled to us ate sadi in hebu so it's just useful to know that your doctor is in israel Or if you're going to be starting or continuing treatment here might be familiar with different names for the drugs In terms of drugs that I can tell you are personally available in israel Well, let's start with the anxiety and depression medications. So the ssri's are available here Likewise ssri's also well-buterin and atypical agents for adhd We have both non stimulants such as adamoxetine aka strateria As well as your classic stimulant medications like vivans ritalin aderal etc Those are all commonly used and available in israel in general They're subsidized by the kupat holim if they fall into something called the sal habriut Which is the healthcare basket, which is basically the medications that israel subsidize Subsidizes so you're going to have a copay on most of the medications for most of them It's pretty trivial for some it's a bit less trivial if a medication is not in the sal abriut It doesn't necessarily mean that you're not able to get it There's just a little bit more paperwork involved in getting that medication Especially imported to israel and allowed to be used for your mental health care treatment I've talked so far about what can be really called psychopharmotherapy Treating mental health disorders through the use of medications And of course it's impossible to talk about mental health without also mentioning psychotherapy Psychotherapy is also available in israel both on a private basis as well as through the kupat holim I would say in general the system is a little bit less Well developed than it is for psychiatry I can say that in Jerusalem with macabi, which is what I use at getting access to English speaking a psychotherapist was really really difficult And I think that psychotherapy like your doctor like your insurance person like your lawyer It's one of those things that it's just a lot easier to access through your native language because I can only imagine That receiving something like CBT Through hebrew although my hebrew is not bad at all, but I can think that that would be really really difficult So there are english speaking therapists And there's also a good initiative to know about if english is your language in which case it might be because you're watching this video A good website is called get help israel.com. This is a database listing psychiatrists and psychotherapists in israel You can search according to their speciality and you can search according to their language It's intended for private people So if you've decided that the public system either isn't working for you or more commonly just isn't working quickly enough for you because As I mentioned, there is just this shortage of psychiatrists and often psychotherapists in the public system are also Less under available in terms of they're not being enough and overwhelmed Those who are working are dealing with too many patients So that's a common reason why people turn to the private system The main message I wanted to drive home is that mental health care definitely exists in israel And if you're struggling with depression anxiety or ADHD, you can absolutely either get treatment here Or continue the treatment you're receiving from your doctor abroad If you're hoping to continue treatment here with specific medications It's a really good idea to get your foreign doctor to write up some report Just a letter in english listing what your diagnosis is and what your medications are currently on It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be able to avoid the diagnostic process In israel again There might they might want to double check that you have the correct diagnosis But I've heard from a lot of people that they haven't had any trouble In continuing their medication regime for whatever mental health conditions they may have I hope that very general information was useful if you have anxiety depression or ADHD and you're thinking about Making aliyah moving to israel at this very very important juncture In history and if you'd like to get more videos from me about things related to living in israel Then please do consider subscribing to this youtube channel. Thank you for watching today's video