Medical and paramedical staff endure a psychological toll of burn-out as part of the heavy personal consequences of their work, with an immeasurable increase during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. In Israel, there is an added stress of the highly unstable political situation, including war and racial-riots with direct hits of missiles leading to mass casualty events. Members often had to stay in the hospitals for days as the roads home were blocked. Wolfson Medical Center (WMC) is a medium size, level II hospital in the center of Israel. It serves a complex population, most from low to medium socioeconomic status, and a large population of displaced persons. The responsibilities of the staff weigh heavy, leading to psychological trauma, with clear signs of anxiety, depression and suicide.Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) is a non-profit organization collaborating with over 40 organizations to create a continuum of care in psycho-trauma, response and preparedness.

ITC has initiated a Resilience-Trustees program, establishing a strong and active group within the organization, with adequate representation from each department and profession. Training the team to identify a colleague in distress, to respond adequately and to refer to professional help as needed. The program has started implementation in various hospitals in Israel, including WMC.

The expected results of this program is a change in the organization's culture of discourse and daily interaction so as to promote resilience and mutual trust and to help cope favorably with crisis situations. The actual results will be shown through a case study of the WMC team of Resilience Trustees, in accordance with the steps of the program (resilience in the original team, then the overall staff).

This initiative will promote awareness and acceptance of mental, personal and team difficulties, as well as reduce risks of secondary traumatization, burnout and other disorders.