The Social Work and Education Service

Miki Sharon- Director, Social Work and Education Service

The Social Work and Education Department at Reuth Tel Aviv Rehabilitation Hospital operates to promote the personal, social, and educational well-being of patients and their families, driven by a deep commitment and a view of the individual and family at the center.

The service operates in three areas: social work, spiritual care, and the school in the pediatric wards, integrating these areas to achieve optimal results and advance its goals.

Social Work

Social work at the hospital is based on an approach that views the patient as a whole person with emotional, social, and medical needs.

In each of the hospital’s departments there are social workers who meet with all patients and families and offer the following interventions and services:

Emotional support for patients and families, including psychotherapy: Therapeutic interventions in situations of crisis, change, and ongoing distress, aiming to support coping with personal and family challenges arising from the medical condition.
Assistance in exercising rights: Counseling, guidance, and even assistance with submitting claims (with an emphasis on National Insurance), contact with community services, and support with bureaucratic processes.
Increasing patient and family involvement in the rehabilitation process: Developing awareness among patients and families about this important issue, as well as mediation and facilitation between them and the treating team.
Discharge planning and continuity of care: Preparation for the transition from hospital to community, including building rehabilitation plans tailored to individual and family needs.
Support for treating teams: Guidance, support, and accompaniment to reduce burnout and promote communication and cooperation within the multidisciplinary team.
Coordinating the committee for prevention of abuse: Protecting patients through oversight processes based on Ministry of Health procedures and the law.

Spiritual Care

The purpose of spiritual care in the hospital is to accompany individuals in situations of crisis, loss, and end-of-life, with consideration for their spiritual world, in order to connect them to sources of meaning, hope, and inner strength.

Spiritual care offers a safe space and attentive listening to the individual, using various tools such as conversation, shared reading, meditation, guided imagery, and more.

Areas of spiritual care work at the hospital include:

Individual and group spiritual care for patients in ventilated and complex nursing departments and their families.
Spiritual care for patients and families in end-of-life situations.
Spiritual care aimed at supporting coping with crisis situations for patients in rehabilitation departments, day hospital, and trauma clinic.
Support through individual conversations and group work for the hospital’s professional staff.

The School in the Pediatric Wards

The school operates under the “Free Education Law for Sick Children” (2001) and includes special education teachers, health professionals, and an animal-assisted therapist. The students are all hospitalized children from infancy to age 21, most of whom are in particularly complex medical conditions.

Given these medical characteristics, the main goal of the educational staff is: “To do everything possible so that the children receive the attention, warmth, and love they deserve in order to improve their well-being and development“.

The school’s areas of activity include:

– Direct care for the child:

Promoting a sense of home – nurturing the physical environment, creating a warm, loving, and safe atmosphere through a loving “good morning” touch and throughout the school day, excitement with the first rain in autumn, winter stories and songs, pampering scents of citrus blossoms in spring, water activities in summer. Birthdays and holidays, each according to their family’s customs. Joyful music and songs.
Promoting communication and the child’s connection to the environment – animal-assisted therapy, use of advanced technologies, operation of a therapeutic rooftop, group work with the children.

– Work with families: Strengthening and nurturing the relationship between the child and their family. Supporting emotional and practical coping and strengthening parental resilience. Encouraging parents to be in contact with the staff and mediating between them and the medical team.

– Cooperation with the nursing and multidisciplinary staff to promote the children and their well-being and to create a division entirely focused on the benefit of the children and their families.