'Returning to Life' wellness program offers holistic support for former Israeli hostages and their families

Israel's Sheba Medical Center and the National Insurance Institute are launching a new program called “Returning to Life,” designed to offer holistic support to former hostages and their families.

“Returning to Life” offers comprehensive medical and emotional care through personalized, free treatment plans tailored to the needs of former hostages and their family members. The program will also provide support to the families of hostages still held captive in Gaza.

Dr. Galia Barkai, director of Sheba BEYOND virtual hospital, explained the complex needs of former hostages and their families.

"The returnees and their families need a broad support system that combines medical, rehabilitative, and emotional care, with maximum availability and accessibility. 'Returning to Life' will allow us to provide them with the comprehensive and ongoing care they need, wherever they are – at Sheba, from home, or remotely, based on the experience and professional knowledge we have accumulated after treating dozens of returnees and their families,” Barkai explained.

She emphasized that the new program is an integral component of a wider national mission in Israel to rehabilitate individuals who have suffered from extreme cases of trauma.

“This is a national mission, and we are committed to providing each patient with the best professional and humane response. The program brings with it the possibility of real rehabilitation and hope for growth even for those who have experienced severe trauma," Barkai said.

In January 2024, Israeli psychiatry experts warned that the Oct. 7 terror attack in 2023 caused the most severe wave of mental trauma in Israel's modern history. However, Israel’s already understaffed healthcare system, which was struggling even before the Hamas invasion, has been unable to provide sufficient assistance to the former hostages, their families and many other Israelis who have experienced trauma.

Sheba's new wellness program is designed to address this growing demand for complex rehabilitation needs.

While the Oct. 7 atrocities have been traumatic for all Israelis, Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur stressed that the families of hostages have suffered the most.

"The families of the hostages have gone through the greatest hell since October 7. They have experienced long months of anticipation, pain, worry, and constant anxiety for the fate of their loved ones who suffered in cruel captivity deep in the ground in mortal danger and miraculously survived hell,” Ben-Tzur stated.

“The national program Returning to Life – for returnees and their families – is our moral and ethical duty to the families of the hostages to stand by them and support them in the long rehabilitation. The State of Israel will work tirelessly for the release of the remaining hostages until we bring home the last of our children," he added.

Sheba Medical Center, which is located near Tel Aviv, is well positioned to provide complex and sophisticated support for former hostages and their families.

Earlier this month, Newsweek ranked Sheba as the world’s 8th best hospital in its prestigious annual ranking and in 2023, it was ranked among the world’s 20 leading “smart hospitals.”