At the core of the Jewish people is the Family. Many aspects of Jewish life revolve around the relationship between parents and siblings. In times of happiness and also in times of sadness, we turn to each other and connect. But not everyone has the opportunity. In many cases, we are heavily affected by many factors that prevent us from having the tools to live with optimal mental and emotional health. It is therefore our pleasure to interview Ms. Tzivey Reiter, the Director for OHEL family services.
Please tell our readers about OHEL. What are their goals? What issues do they target? what services do they offer?
OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services is the most trusted haven of safety and support. We provide services that help build lives and strengthen families, homes and communities to face social, developmental and emotional challenges.
OHEL offers a holistic range of social services for those in need, whether those in crisis or the ever increasing number of everyday individuals and families faced with the everyday challenges of life. The programs and services OHEL provides include mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, issues related to parenting and child development. OHEL also provides foster care, domestic violence shelters, developmental disability services, eldercare, trauma services as well as professional training and community-wide awareness events. Camp Kaylie at OHEL is also the singular summer inclusive camp that provides an experience of a lifetime for typical kids and those with a disability.
How many years has Ohel been around and where do they operate?
Celebrating 50 Years of service to the community, OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services started in 1969 as a foster care agency for Jewish children who came from homes of neglect or abuse. OHEL’s many services are provided through out-patient centers at the OHEL Jaffa Family Campus in Brooklyn and The Kleinman Family OHEL Regional Family Center in Far Rockaway. OHEL foster homes and residential services for those with developmental or psychiatric disabilities are provided throughout NYC and Long Island.
What is your role in the organization and what is your vision for Ohel’s future and the population it serves?
I am OHEL’s Director of Children’s Services, overseeing school based services, trauma, foster and preventive care, Early Childhood Mental Health, Children & Family Treatment and Support Services, and our out-patient counseling centers which offer services to children and adults.
OHEL is a leader in the community in acknowledging and addressing difficult issues and paving the way for individuals and families to get the help they need. We pride ourselves on offering cutting edge treatment based on the latest research and best practices. We firmly believe that everyone is entitled to quality mental health and you don’t only need to go to a private practitioner to get it.
At OHEL we have seen the landscape of mental health change. Parents are reaching out for help for their children at younger ages than we have seen ever before. We have seen a great increase in children and adults coming in for help with anxiety. There are many contributing factors to this: whether it is the increased stresses of life; the rise in “helicopter parenting” resulting in children not developing the requisite coping skills needed; the extraordinary impact of social media and technology on both parenting and child development; or the deleterious effect on children in a high conflict divorce. We as an agency are tackling these issues in a multi-pronged way through education, prevention and treatment. We often host educational community forums such as the one we had this past week in Beth Gavriel, “Disconnect to Reconnect: Strengthening Jewish Families in the Digital Age.” We have developed an anxiety prevention program for middle school students, as middle school is a developmental stage where children experience many transitions and are more prone to developing anxiety. We have invested considerable training and infrastructure with capacity to provide treatment on a wide range of children and family issues. As an example, our therapists are trained in Coping Cat, an evidence based treatment to treat anxiety in children; Triple P Positive Parenting Program; and Child Parent Psychotherapy, which is a model of treatment where young children are treated together with their parents in session to increase their attachment to one another.
Mental Health is a very broad and inclusive topic. Can you please describe Ohel’s approach for promoting healthy life and treating mental health issues?
At OHEL we believe strongly that healthy people seek help so that they can live their lives in the fullest and most meaningful way possible. Unfortunately, in our society, there is a lot of stigma around mental health. A common belief is that people should be strong enough to overcome their struggles and to reach out for help, whether it is for anxiety, help with a child, or for conflict in one’s marriage, is a sign of weakness. These issues are more common than people realize, and they are often able to be successfully navigated and managed – sometimes on one’s own, but often with professional guidance. At OHEL we initiated a “Sign of Strength” educational campaign to share the message that seeking help is a sign of strength and not weakness. Admitting to one’s vulnerabilities, showing genuine emotion and needing help at challenging times in one’s life, are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of humanity. Taking the step to reach out for that help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength, resilience and health.
How has OHEL impacted the lives of those affected? Do you have any examples or memorable event you can share with our readers? ]
OHEL serves over 13,000 people, positively impacting the lives of so many individuals and families,
Much of the life transformative work that OHEL’s does, through over 1,200 dedicated employees – is under the radar, never seen, given the sensitive nature of our work and client confidentiality.
But in every community in every synagogue and even quite possibly on your street there may be someone who directly benefited from OHEL services or knows a person who did.
Our stories of interventions and success are countless and the extensive work we do in Trauma and Grief is helping many families.
From the mother who lost her son and told us that “we brought a little bit of peace into a mother’s heart” after our trauma intervention; to the couples who learned to rebuild their relationships and develop a closeness that wasn’t there before; to the child who no longer bites and kicks when upset; to the mother affected by postpartum depression who has learned to bond with her baby – our stories and manifold. They are OHEL’s stories. They are everyone’s stories.
To learn more about OHEL, please log on to www.ohelfamily.org
Interviewing Tzivey Reiter of OHEL
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