| Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Jerusalem, Israel |
| Organisation | |
| Funding | Public hospital |
| Hospital type | Specialist |
| Services | |
| Speciality | Psychiatric |
| History | |
| Founded | 1951 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in Israel |
Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center (Hebrew: בית החולים כפר שאול), established in 1951, is an Israeli public psychiatric hospital located between Givat Shaul and Har Nof, Jerusalem. It is affiliated with the Hadassah Medical Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[1] The hospital is Jerusalem's designated psychiatric hospital for tourists who display mental health disturbances, and is widely known for its research on Jerusalem Syndrome.[2] It is also known for having been established on the intact Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, which was depopulated by Jewish paramilitary forces in April 1948, one month before the creation of the state of Israel.[3]
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Excavations carried out at the site in 2000 unearthed the remains of a winepress dated to the Byzantine or Roman era.[4]
The hospital stands on the site of the former Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, which was invaded on April 9, 1948 by fighters from two paramilitary Zionist groups, from the Irgun and the Lehi, who sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem. Around 107 villagers were killed, while Zionist casualties stood at 4 dead and 35 wounded. The village was subsequently taken over by the new State of Israel.[3] Construction of the mental health facility began in 1951, using the villagers' houses and school. The new hospital at first housed a therapeutic community of around 300 patients who spent almost all their time outdoors, and was called the Kfar Shaul Government Work Village for Mental Patients.[5] In its early years, the majority of patients were Holocaust survivors.[6]
Along with other psychiatric facilities in Israel, the hospital suffers from severe overcrowding and an average occupancy rate of 110 percent.[7] Udi Aloni, the Israeli film director, writes in Haaretz that it is in a dilapidated state; his film Forgiveness (2006) takes place at the hospital.[8] It is one of the hospitals in Israel that has Snoezelen rooms, a Dutch therapy technique which uses controlled stimulation of the five senses to benefit the mentally and physically disabled.[9] It is known in particular for its association with Jerusalem Syndrome, a condition in which the sufferer is gripped by religious delusions. The hospital sees some 50 patients a year who are diagnosed with the condition.[10] Israel psychologist Gregory Katz has said many of the patients are Pentecostals from rural parts of the United States and Scandinavia.[11] The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1993 by Yair Bar-El, a former director of the hospital.[10]