Common ground

It’s no surprise that in Israel, mental health is an increasingly significant issue after years of war have weighed on the nation. However, not everyone understands its link to addiction. One survey conducted in 2024 found that 26 per cent of Israelis are using addictive substances, an increase of 15 per cent from 2022.

“Mental health and addiction are inseparable,” notes Dr. Ariel Kor, founder of the Israel Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (ICAMH), Chair of the Israel Centre on Addiction (ICA) and a clinical psychologist. “Our clinics embody the understanding that trauma, life crises and emotional distress are inherently linked to harmful substance use and addictive behaviours. To treat one without the other is to offer incomplete care.”

Enter ICAMH, the first and only institution in Israel that intertwines research and care for both psychiatric and addiction issues. The centre, which opened in November 2025, was built in large part thanks to a $25-million donation from the Azrieli Foundation to Hebrew University, to create an academic centre, and it opened at the right time. “After October 7, a huge number of people are coming to receive treatment for both trauma and addiction problems,” says Dr. Mario Mikulincer, Academic Director of ICAMH.

Creating a space for treatment 

The centre consists of two buildings that are each six storeys tall and house clinical and teaching areas, group therapy rooms, research labs and office space. The buildings are surrounded by well-manicured green spaces, while the interiors boast plants, natural wood accents, modern design and an abundance of natural light.

Creating a beautiful and welcoming space was intentional. “Mental health and addiction should not be relegated to hidden or neglected corners. By providing a dignified, state-of-the-art environment, we convey to our patients that they are worthy of the highest standard of care,” explains Kor.

The Foundation’s contributions extend beyond building ICAMH’s facilities. It also provides the administrative and human resources necessary to advance the institution’s research, teaching and clinical care goals.

Naomi Azrieli, Chair of the Azrieli Foundation, explains that by bringing together these three areas, which focus on community care, research, education and specialized care, ICAMH “has the potential to shift the whole ecosystem related to mental health and addiction in the country.”

The hope is that ICAMH will improve treatment for those struggling with addiction and mental health challenges, and help to reduce societal stigma around these issues. “Since October 7 and the ensuing war, people talk a lot about PTSD, trauma and mental health issues in society, but addiction is still hugely taboo. It’s still seen as a personal failure,” says Azrieli. “We are proud to put our philanthropy and our name behind ICAMH to help normalize care for mental health and addiction in Israel.”

Cross-discipline care

Another unique feature of ICAMH is that it integrates clinical care and research across a wide range of disciplines including psychology, pharmacy, genetics, philosophy, social work and computational science. This means researchers can tackle the complex challenges of addiction and mental health with comprehensive solutions.

One example of how this collaboration can help is around the use of psychedelics in treating PTSD, says Mikulincer. While these drugs can be effective, they can also induce fear or simply offer a distraction rather than healing. By bringing together a pharmacist and a cognitive psychologist on a research project, ICAMH can build a new therapy in which an individual is exposed to triggers in a safe environment, assisted with psychedelics.

ICAMH also breaks down walls between research and clinical care. “Traditionally, public health systems, academia and field-level NGOs operate in isolation,” says Kor. “This fragmentation creates gaps in the continuum of care and separates research from real-world application.”

Academics, for instance, might focus on research pursuits that don’t meet the day-to-day needs of patients. Healthcare providers, meanwhile, might provide care without the latest scientific evidence. By bringing these two sides together, ICAMH ensures that its research answers the questions that front-line doctors, nurses and psychologists want answered. “The close partnership ensures that good research gets implemented in the clinic, and then what’s learned in the clinic goes back into research. It’s a virtuous loop,” says Azrieli.

Scaling up support

ICAMH is currently providing care to approximately 100 patients who have co-occurring mental health and addiction challenges, and is increasing capacity to serve 400 patients at a time in the coming years.

Treatment can include individual and group psychotherapy as well as appointments with psychiatrists and social workers. Patients also see occupational therapists, who help strengthen executive functions like planning, impulse control and emotional regulation to help patients follow treatment plans.

In addition, the centre employs Israeli-Arab therapists, as well as Orthodox male and female therapists, to provide culturally informed care to those communities.

The Azrieli Foundation’s funding also enables 20 psychology interns to train at ICAMH. “After 10 years, ICAMH will have trained more than 100 young psychologists with this expertise, which will revolutionize clinical psychology in Israel,” says Mikulincer.

Already, the centre is generating results. Recently, Kor spoke with the family of a young adult patient who struggled for years because psychiatric units couldn’t address his substance use, while addiction centres did not feel equipped to handle his underlying psychiatric distress.  The young man “has transformed” since coming to ICAMH. “That’s really highlighted the medical and ethical necessity of the centre,” Kor says, adding that “the acute national need for trauma and addiction services only reinforces our shared resolve.”

The gift of science

A $50M donation from the Azrieli Foundation is fuelling a landmark partnership to diagnose rare childhood diseases faster.

Imagine watching helplessly as your baby begins to suffer from mysterious symptoms or miss key milestones. Countless medical appointments and tests later, the people who should have answers have none.

According to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, one in 40 children is born with a rare disease, and half of those won’t survive to adulthood. It can take years for children with unexplained health problems to access whole-genome sequencing—comprehensive but costly testing that reveals genetic mutations in a person’s DNA—and some never receive it at all.

The Precision Child Health partnership between SickKids in Toronto and Sainte-Justine University Hospital in Montreal aims to change that. Supported by a $50-million donation from the Azrieli Foundation, the groundbreaking initiative expands access to advanced genomic technologies to better diagnose rare pediatric diseases, including childhood cancers, and accelerate personalized treatments.

“The vision is that, in five years, all children with serious undiagnosed conditions will rapidly have their genome sequenced, and we’ll identify the right drug or gene therapy for many more disorders,” says Mira Puri, PhD, Scientific Director of the Healthcare, Science & Research portfolio at the Azrieli Foundation.

By bringing together clinicians, geneticists and computational scientists, and enabling large-scale data sharing between institutions, the partnership is building a powerful database linking genetic mutations to symptoms. “Research data is accumulating so quickly because of big shifts in computational capacity,” explains Puri. “We want the pace of treatment breakthroughs to meet the potential that’s possible with today’s technology.”  — Wendy Jain