Dr. Moshe Farchi, a Trauma expert from the Department of Social Work at the Tel-Hai Academic College has mastered a unique and one-of-a-kind intervention program in Israel jointly developed by Prof. Yori Gidron, a medical psychologist from Brunel University in England, that sets out to immunize the residents of Sderot with a psychological immunization which will protect them from the harsh anxiety they are experiencing as a result of the Qassam assaults.

This unique project, which is already underway, includes a psychological immunization to approximately 5,000 families in Sderot and will be administered by the students of the Trauma and Stress track in the Department of Social Work at the Tel-Hai Academic College.

Just as a regular physiological immunization introduces weakened viruses to the body which allow the immune system to develop antibodies to fight these diseases, so does the psychological immunization works to increase the mental fortitude of the Sderot residents.

This unique intervention plan is executed over the phone and includes a short questionnaire which ensures the resident is at the required level of stress that will allow the administering of the intervention protocol. Following this, the student provides the resident with several sentences defined as "challenge" sentences, while pointing out that the sentence is not true and then the resident is asked to provide a sentence defined as a "repelling" sentence which holds true for the resident in reality. An example of a "challenge" sentence which is not true is "every Qassam missile which lands hits". The resident is asked to repel this sentence and to provide a correct sentence such as: "most of the Qassams falling do not hit anybody". Another example of a "challenge" sentence: "when a Qassam falls I do not know what to do", and a "repelling" sentence to that can be: "when a Qassam falls I run to a safe place/hide/lie on the road" and so forth.

Dr. Moshe Farchi explains how this program works: "we elevate the level of anxiety in a controlled environment by saying these extreme "challenge" sentences to the resident of Sderot and by doing this, we encourage the human psychological system to create antibodies through the "repelling" sentences".

According to the program, which is operated in conjunction with the welfare department of the Sderot municipality, each family receives a course of three telephone treatments/immunizations. During the first two calls a protocol is followed which includes an anxiety gage questionnaire, the "challenge" sentences and the "repelling" sentences, and on the third conversation the students make sure the anxiety levels have dropped through another questionnaire. According to the program, the anxiety level is expected to drop with each telephone call and thus creating an empowerment of mental fortitude for the resident of Sderot.

Dr. Farchi further explains that "at this time only residents of Sderot who are 18 years old and above participate in the program. We know that there are many children in Sderot who are under tremendous amounts of anxiety, but studies have shown that the fortitude of the parents directly reflects on the children and therefore an intervention for the parents will probably positively impact the children".