Social workers offered new course in treating traffic accident victims

Social workers are frequently the first people to notify loved ones of fatalities in hundreds of traffic accidents each year.

By RUTH EGLASH
car crash 88 (photo credit: )
car crash 88
(photo credit: )
Social workers will now be able to take a new course in how to treat victims of traffic accidents and their families, the Welfare and Social Services Ministry announced over the weekend, two days before the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims to be marked on Sunday. The course, which was started as a pilot in September, will now be broadened to reach hundreds more social workers who are frequently the first people to notify loved ones of fatalities in hundreds of traffic accidents each year. According to data published Friday by the ministry, 373 people were killed in accidents so far this year, down two percent over the same period last year. A ministry spokeswoman said that in 269 of the cases, the initial notification of death to families came from social workers. In addition, some 110 families have received either individualized treatment or group therapy via the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services. "A death as a result of a traffic accident leaves a family in a very difficult place," commented Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog. "The Welfare and Social Services Ministry work very hard to provide comprehensive assistance to families and I want to make clear the message that these people do not have to suffer alone with their tragedy." The ministry also said that it works closely with the Israel Prisons Service's Probation Officers who, according to the law, must provide drivers found guilty of killing people by negligence with rehabilitation therapy. Hundreds of people have received such treatment in the past number of years.