About the "Alone and Together" Center - Article by Mira Nir in the "Gal-Gefen" local newspaper in Rechovot, 21/01/10
Irit Yaron, director of Nitzan Rechovot, speaks openly and decisively about the need of the special needs adult community for love, warmth, relationships, and intimacy. She took the topic and "put it out on the table". Irit says, "After years of work and close familiarity with Nitzan's adult population, we understood there's a great need for counseling, treatment, and training in the area of social and intimate relationships for this population. We understood that these people are desperate and thirsty for basic knowledge and tools to form social and intimate relationships. We became committed to the task out of faith in its importance and the great hope that with cooperation of all of the qualified staff and professionals, we will succeed.
Irit speaks about success, but is also willing to accept the difficulties and non-successes. She believes this is a necessary process for improving the lives of adults with special needs in a significant way.
In order to carry out the idea, the "Alone and Together" Center was established at Nitzan Rechovot seven years ago. The center offers counseling, treatment, and training in the areas of sexuality, intimacy, and social relationships to people with cognitive and social handicaps. The center is part of a larger array of services at Nitzan Rechovot for adults with special needs.
The activities at this center aim to help its participants develop social skills, improve interpersonal communication, have healthy, enjoyable, and responsible sexuality, improve their self concept and sexual concept, build and maintain intimate relationships with a stress on spousal communication, lessening unacceptable sexual behaviors and the danger for sexual assault, receive training, counseling, treatment of relationship and sexual difficulties, and have an opportunity for making social contacts.