Ohel provides mental health services across the spectrum. Read more about what they do, here.
There’s early childhood mental health services, child and adult outpatient clinics, trauma services, community programs, school-based social emotional training, and so much more.
Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services is the umbrella organization that the Jewish community turns to when they need any sort of mental health support. Is it easy to seek support for ourselves or our children? Definitely not. But when we need mental health support, or maybe aren’t sure if we need support, or what support we need, Ohel is our community’s hub.
When learning about all the different services Ohel provides, we realized that to fully explain everything that Ohel does, we’d need a lot more space than we have here. Do we zero in on their mental health services? Older adult supports? Educational webinars? School-based supports? It took us some time, but after speaking with Tzivy Reiter, LCSW, director of Children’s and Trauma Services at Ohel, we decided to give you an overview of the services we thought would be most relevant, zero in on services available for children, and direct you to Ohel’s website here for more!
Here’s Ohel’s big picture: when the Jewish community needs mental health support, be it therapy for a child, an outpatient mental health counseling clinic, parent and teacher mental health awareness, trauma services, you just about name it, Ohel is right there, to listen and to support. And as our generation is becoming more and more aware and open to learning about mental health, Ohel keeps expanding their programs to include more and more. Community programs work on prevention of mental health challenges, like perceiving and understanding trauma, resilience building, social-emotional learning, and more.
For possibly the first time ever, our generation isn’t sweeping mental health challenges under the rug. We’re looking for support and looking to give ourselves, and our children, the greatest shot at success. In response to our openness to work on raising emotionally healthy children, Ohel developed school-based programs for all students, including those who aren’t exhibiting any signs of mental health challenges. Ohel comes into frum schools and gives over their amazing social-emotional learning program, a program developed for the frum child that’s sensitive and nuanced to our values. Another important program they offer is resilience-building (look out for a brand-new resilience workbook for kids soon); every child can benefit from training and guidance in building resilience to life’s challenges that inevitably surface, even if they’re not currently struggling.
Sometimes, a family needs more support than the school-based programs provide. ‘The importance of early intervention can’t be overstated.’ explains Tzivy. ‘When kids present with early signs of anxiety or depression, we work with them and their parents together in our early childhood treatment centers. We see kids as young as 3 years old and our therapists work with the parent and child together.’ Because mental health challenges don’t typically go away on their own, it can only help to get support earlier and work to resolve the issues when the kids are still young. And no matter what your child is struggling with, Ohel is there to listen and provide support.
Another topic you’re probably familiar with to help raise emotionally healthy kids? Talking about emotions and feelings. Although books about emotions are not a novel idea, Ohel created a preschool book that takes it to the next level. The book ‘I Feel That Way and That’s Okay,’ available on Amazon, teaches kids how to recognize emotions inside our bodies. ‘I Feel That Way’ doesn’t just label the feelings, which alone doesn’t necessarily teach how to identify the feeling inside of you. The book answers questions like, what does calm feel like in your body? What about angry, happy, or worried? It also includes a teacher and parent guide, and you can download free coloring pages on the Ohel website to further support your child’s learning.
So, what’s the bottom line? Ohel is here for us, to listen to our struggles, and provide the support we need. Learn more about their services for children and adults here, and check out their amazing webinars here. We’re all doing our best, and Ohel’s here to support us along the way.
Contact Ohel with any questions by phone at 800-603-OHEL(6435), on their website here, or by email at access@ohelfamily.org.
