The Law for Rehabilitation in the Community of Persons with Mental Disabilities: An Interim Appraisal

Besides reviewing the reform’s accomplishments and its contribution to the changes that have occurred in mental health services, the article also assesses the dangers it has to contend with.  The analysis focuses on the system’s clients, budget, personnel, and services — and on its functional environment.  In the course of the decade, the mental health rehabilitation services have considerably expanded, resulting in significant savings to the state; nevertheless, rehabilitation services cover only about one-fifth of the target population and many of those entitled to a rehabilitation service package fail to secure it.  It also bears mention that there has been erosion in the average budget per rehabilitation recipient.  In order for the reform to achieve its objectives, the services and budget must be adapted to the changing character of the mentally disabled, as well as to the special needs of specific population groups.  Such problems as the quality and training of personnel in the rehabilitation network and market failure and loss of control by the regulators over a system should be dealt with and avoided.  Lastly, the chapter discusses the mutual dependency between the rehabilitation service system and the Insurance Reform, due to start in 2015, emphasizing the importance of the rehabilitation system’s efficient and effective functioning to the success of that reform and to improvement of the mental health services in general.

This paper appears in the Center’s annual publication State of the Nation – Society, Economy and Policy 2013.