SEEKING PROFESSIONAL HELP AND SATISFACTION FROM THE TREATMENT AMONG DISPLACED AND NONDISPLACED COMMUNITIES FROM WAR ZONES

Following the recent terror attack of the Gaza Hamas movement in south Israel on October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza that followed this attack, several communities in this area were evacuated.They were placed in hotels in central Israel.Other nearby cities were not evacuated.About three weeks after the attack, we surveyed residents of the city of Sderot who were evacuated from their city (sample 1), and about eight months after the attack, while the war between Israel and Gaza Hams was still ongoing, we conducted another survey in the neighboring city of Ofakim who were not evacuated, despite being massively exposed to the October 7 events and the continuous war (sample 2).Research aims: Examining the extent of treatment-seeking from the Resilience Center and whether background variables, level of exposure to war events, and psychological distress predict help-seeking behavior in both samples and the level of satisfaction with the treatment in both samples.Samples: Sample 1 consisted of 881 displaced residents of Sderot, and Sample 2 and Sample 2 included 387 residents of an Ofakim neighborhood that was attacked by Hamas and were not displaced.Measurement scales included standard scales for ASD, PTSD, anxiety, and depression and questions that were tailor-made for this study.Results show high exposure to terror attacks and war events and high levels of psychological distress in both samples.About half of the participants in sample 1 and one-third in sample 2 sought professional help from the Resilience Centers.In sample 1, seeking treatment was associated with gender (women), being a parent, and higher levels of ASD.In sample 2, seeking treatment was weakly associated with the level of exposure to war and moderately associated with PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and gender.Clients of the Resilience Center expressed high satisfaction with the treatment in both samples.This study highlights the importance of immediate psychosocial treatment for communities in war zones, whether evacuated or not.