The documents of a deceased psychologist, containing private assessments and personal information on patients, some of whom were children, were found on a street in Ramat Gan on Tuesday.
The hundreds of files were thrown out from a local center for psychology and treatment of learning disabilities that was shut down after the psychologist passed away a year and a half ago.
The documents included the patients' full names, birthdates, ID numbers, family status, personal details of their lives and the issues for which they were seeking treatment.
"Severe difficulties with entire school curriculum," said one file.
"On an emotional level, the child demonstrates a total lack of faith in her abilities," said another.
"The kindergarten teacher threatened the child on several occasions. During the time before preschool showed severe motor difficulties," another file said.
A mother whose child was treated at the facility said she was mortified when she heard about about this disposal of the files.
"This is just awful. Every patient's nightmare is that such a thing would happen," she said.
"My daughter was not problematic, but did have certain difficulties, and I made sure for her to get out of a public clinic and to receive private personal treatment in order to ensure her privacy. The fact that such a thing could happen at a private clinic is frightening."
Dr. Yoram Schleyer, head of the Israel Psychological Association, said that unfortunately there are not specific protocols in place to ensure that such an incident does not occur.
"Such a thing must be regulated," he said. "There needs to be a protocol for when a trained professional passes away or retires, transfer the documents to another professional who can take proper care of them."
Asked to comment, the Health Ministry said that talks were being held with health officials on this matter and that reforms were being developed.