Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman has announced that they are going to convert two mental institutions to work in a mehadrin format, one being converted to men only and one to female only.
This of course caused an uproar, as many, including in the medical field, are calling it religious coercion, and they point out that nowhere in the world is this done.
Litzman's response is that he receives a lot of complaints about what goes in in the hospitals. He says many people refuse to provide the necessary treatments because of it. He is simply taking two hospitals that are not at full capacity right now and running his trial system on them. I would note that he does not specify what the problems are in the mental hospitals, just that they exist and because of them people do not provide treatment to members of their families who require it.
Now even if you are crazy you have nothing to worry about. No need to look at women... I imagine that if Litzman had been made Deputy Minister of Transportation (it was suggested at the time of the building of the coalition to give the Transportation Ministry to the UTJ, but was rejected because it was not prestigious enough), we would all be riding in mehadrin buses and trains right now...
In the video you can see Litzman respond on the issue. I have no idea what the main topic of discussion was, as he is sitting with the various haredi mayors, and I see no reason why this would be their topic of a meeting, so they were probably talking about something else when this issue came up...
All the other mayors look So bored - but little Moishy looks like h eis loving every minute of the Charedi takeover!
ReplyDeleteAlso check out the new interview on kikar:"אבוטבול: "שלום לרנר מתוסכל בגלל שלא נבחר"
http://www.kikar.net/22268.html
While i am normally one of the first to complain about creeping haredization and unnecessary separation of men and women, in this case I can see the point.
ReplyDeletePsychiatric facilities contain some very troubled people. Some of them are violent and some are sexually disturbed. Others may behave in a way that is inappropriate. Due to budget constraints wards are understaffed, and overcrowded.
I can fully understand why a woman would feel more comfortable in a separate facility.
In UK the public hospitals have been running mixed wards for some time, and many people find this very uncomfortable.
if it is necessary, I have no problem with it. The problem is that everyone in the health field, except for those who work under R' Litzman, has rejected it.
ReplyDeleteThere is a way to do things. He has made this look like a haredi takeover. Instea dof setting up a comittee of health professional to analyze the complaints he says he has received and to check if the system needs a change of this type or other forms of change, he simply announced that he is changing it to separate men and women. It looks like a haredi takeover. There is right, and there is smart. This is definitely not smart, and whether it is right or not is questionable because he has not appointed pros to analyze and decide this.