Israeli trauma care expert helping families of Sewol victims

Yotam Polizer, IsraAID’s Asia regional director

By Kim Se-jeong

An Israeli expert who is helping families hit by a massive tsunami in Japan in 2011 is now in Korea to help traumatized families of the ferry disaster.

Yotam Polizer, Asia regional director at IsraAID, says early trauma care for the survivors and victims’ families is critical to prevent them from developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“We will bring 50 experienced therapists to Korea over the next two years to help them,” added Polizer.

As an Israeli non-governmental organization specialized in trauma care, IsraAID doesn’t directly interact with the families.

Their focus is to introduce new therapy methods to therapists working on the ground.

“We want to offer different models, and Koreans can choose what they want,” the director said.

Experts specialized in art therapy and biblio therapy (which is done through storytelling) and drama therapy visited Korea earlier this month, organizing workshops. Last Sunday, they visited the Paengmok Harbor on Jindo Island to meet psychiatrists working there.

A new group, specialized in music and movement therapies, is arriving soon.

Signs are rampant that families of the missing and dead aboard the sunken ferry Sewol are in need of trauma care. The government task force team sent volunteers, social workers, psychiatrists and counselors to Jindo Island. In Ansan, it opened a new care center to help the families.

The director said he’d avoid recommending a certain therapy to a certain group because culture plays into the selection. That is in part why the group chooses not to interact with the affected directly. “Also, we don’t understand the language.”

Polizer said Israel’s history of constant wars planted a seed in building expertise in dealing with trauma.

PTSD is found among people exposed to traumatic events. Recurrence of disturbing memories and avoiding memories of the event are common symptoms, and early care can prevent its development.

Headquarters in Israel, IsraAID has been running a project with Yonsei University students.

The scope of their work expanded with the Sewol disaster, and it gets critical help from local partners such as Good People, an NGO, the International Child Rights Center, Yonsei University and the Israeli Embassy in Seoul.

Its international projects include victims of the 2011 tsunami in Japan, 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States.