Social services need to treat FSU olim 'more sensitively'

"We can no longer ignore the trend towards embracing pluralism and multi-culturalism."

By RUTH EGLASH
russians immigrants meet (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
russians immigrants meet
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Social workers need to be more "culturally sensitive" when dealing with this country's immigrant populations, especially olim from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who do not have a history of utilizing professional support systems, says Marina Zamsky, director of the Forum for Immigrant Families in the North. The forum is a non-profit organization that provides more than 100,000 olim with a wide range of programs. Earlier this week, Zamsky called on the welfare and social services minister to recognize the problem in light of two separate incidents in which immigrant mothers murdered their young children. She suggested a campaigned aimed at building "bridges of trust" between the FSU community and social workers. "The concept of Israel as a melting pot was discarded years ago, and now when we talk about immigration and absorption we can no longer ignore the worldwide trend towards embracing pluralism and multi-culturalism," Zamsky told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday. "Russian-speaking immigrants do not have a history of using support services. It's just not part of their culture." Zamsky said that a deep lack of trust exists in the FSU immigrant community towards social services, psychologists and other welfare assistance. A study conducted by the forum just over a year ago found that only 40 percent of Russian speaking immigrants were willing to seek out any kind of assistance, even when they felt they were under extreme stress. Out of that 40%, only 24% said they would go to professional social workers or family physicians for help. "Instead of turning to social services, immigrant families [from the FSU] prefer to sort out their problems alone," said Zamsky. "Sometimes the results of this inaction are disastrous, with only a few of the extreme cases being told by the media." Zamsky was referring to two recent cases of immigrant mothers from the FSU, who were clearly suffering from stressful life situations, confessed to murdering their young children. The first incident took place on August 29, when Olga Borisov admitted to drowning her four-year-old son Alon Yehuda in the sea; the second, a week later, involved Regina Kruchkov, who drowned her son Michael, four, in the bathtub. Both women immigrated to Israel in the 1990s. According to Zamsky, the forum warned authorities a year ago that many new and veteran immigrants do not trust the social welfare services. The subject was even raised last November at a conference organized by the NGO to inform social workers of the problem. "It was agreed then that action would be taken to improve the level of trust between the government services and olim communities," said Zamsky. "However, in the past 10 months nothing has been done to improve the situation." The forum's suggestions include launching an informational campaign to explain to the immigrant community that professional help is available that can really make a difference in one's life and training social workers how to breach cultural differences and reach Russian speakers. In response, the Welfare and Social Services Ministry said it was doing all it could to provide new immigrants with required services and that, in contrary to the forum's contentions, many olim do turn to social workers for help and support.