Emergency and disaster situations such as war or terrorism can leave a devastating impact on the mental well-being of victimized populations. In Israel, the civilian aspects of trauma-related mental distress were first extensively tackled during the 1980s, and mainly within the terror-stricken Jerusalem and the localities along the northern border. Since then, a systematic process of trial and error has led to the evolution of emergency mental health services in the country. Over the course of about forty years, it has grown to be an exemplary one. It is a system deeply rooted in the ground, resulting from both a change of discourse and a naturalistic process of lesson learning, that is, drawing conclusions from actual fieldwork. This process and its implications on the mental well-being of Israelis are thoroughly discussed in this research.

In patients with schizophrenia, consent postmortem for organ donation for transplantation and research is usually obtained from relatives. By means of a questionnaire, the authors investigate whether patients with schizophrenia would agree to family members making such decisions for them as well as compare decisions regarding postmortem organ transplantation and brain donation between patients and significant family members. Study results indicate while most patients would not agree to transplantation or brain donation for research, a proportion would agree. Among patients who declined organ donation for transplantation or brain research, almost half of family members would have agreed to brain donation for research and over 40% to organ transplantation. Male relatives are more likely to agree to organ donation from their deceased relatives for both transplantation and research. The authors argue that it is important to respect autonomy and interests of research subjects even if mentally ill and even if no longer living. Consent may be assisted by appropriate educational interventions prior to patient death.

Psychiatry, forensic psychiatry and mental health are not photogenic. In the past few years, Israeli Psychiatry was majorly exposed in mass media reaching a highlight when the involvement of a psychiatrist as a consultant in a reality show has raised serious accusations as well as ethical and clinical questions regarding this involvement. As a public, we are constantly exposed to huge amounts of "raw" information by written and electronic media, influencing our perspective of our environment and as professional we are facing the consequences of this influence on our practice and our patients. In accordance to these, the insights from two years of managing active public relations and lobbying by the Israeli psychiatric association will be discussed. Subsequently a case of an 80 years old woman who was compulsorily hospitalized in a mental health center and that has attracted the mass media attention. This case clearly demonstrates the complex relations between the media and mental health and its impact over mental health services, the legal system, politicians influencing the formulation of public policy and the ambivalent attitude many clinicians share towards the media.

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