Achva Multicultural Paramedical Center

Southern Israel is on the verge of a revolution

Our location is in the periphery in every sense of the word:

It is no secret that one of the major gaps between the center and the periohery - in Israel - is the medical infrastructure, in general, and the paramedical, in particular. 

This is the reality, with its various (as per Lee Iacocca) "unsolvable problems", that Achva Academic College is working to turn into great opportunities. Therefore, we have decided to establish a Multicultural Paramedical Center – the first of its kind, in order to produce the desired change in our region of the country.

This center will include the following significant academic programs, besides practice clinics, which have already begun to create the change: 

Cultural Sensitivity in Clinical Psychology (M.A.)

- Speech therapy and audiology (B.A)

- Nursing (B.Sc)

- Medical laboratory science (B.Sc)

“We are often faced with great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems”.

Lee Iacocca

These new and meaningful study programs at Achva Academic College have already been opened, or are scheduled to open shortly and are likely to change reality in the south. The programs take the unique regional needs and characteristics of the residents of the south into account, with their capacity to improve the paramedical infrastructure and provide an important opportunity for the regional population. 

Our geographic location is accessible to diverse population groups and allows Achva to be an agent of change via higher education to promote productivity of all citizens in the region.

Cultural Sensitivity in Clinical Psychology

A first of its kind Cultural Sensitivity Psychology Clinic is being established at Achva campus. The clinic should provide a suitable response for a unique need among some communities in the Israeli periphery - lack of mental services consumption, as well as, lack of number of clinical psychologists among these community members. The clinic, which will serve, both, the growing regional mental health needs, besides the academic practice requests of those who study Cultural Sensitivity in Clinical Psychology (M.A.), will definitely create a change with regard to the mental services consumption among Bedouins in the northern Negev, Jews who emigrated from Ethiopia and ultra-orthodox Jews living in the development towns around Achva.

Genetic counseling

Some of the populations suffer from a lack of awareness and lack of understanding of everything connected to confronting genetic diseases. In conjunction with the Department for Genetic Counseling at Soroka Medical Center (in Be'er Sheva), Achva Academic College is conducting informational workshops to raise awareness to the subject and prevent hard-to-treat diseases.

Communication disorders, audiology and speech therapy

It's hard to believe, but the waiting period for treatment at the hospitals in southern Israel is no less than a year! Moreover, many medical institutions have positions and jobs to offer, and are anxious for experienced personnel – in vain.  Achva Academic College was exposed to this tremendous shortage and subsequently, following a long and winding road, this year, for the first time in the south, a program for studying communication disorders, audiology and speech therapy was opened. The program has been in high demand and most of the students are from the south. Some of the most prominent speech therapists and audiologists in Israel are leading this program, and teachers include prominent doctors from Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, as well as renowned researchers in the field of audiology.

Alongside the academic infrastructure, treatment clinics will also be established, in order to create double added value: residents of the region will have additional places for treatment and the waiting time will be reduced, while the students will be able to use the sound booths for specialization and professionalization. Thus, both the public-at-large and the students will benefit from our platform.

The Paramedical Center will offer additional study tracks, which have already been approved in principle, such as nursing (in conjunction with Ashkelon College) which will provide a response to the large shortage of relevant professionals in the south, as well as Pre-meddegree program which will enable graduates to then complete a degree in medicine in Israel and abroad. Achva Academic College is already collaborating with The Sheba Medical Center (Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv) in a program for medical lab specialization (Medical laboratory science ), and we are promoting a proposal for a program in emergency medicine studies which will train the next generation of paramedics in Israel. Our Paramedical Center will benefit from the infrastructure in science provided by our Department of Life Sciences (part of our School of Sciences), and has sophisticated labs, and together with programs in information systems and computer science will expose students to the technological tools, which serve medical teams today.