The Plan to Reorganize Mental Health Services in Israel, 1972: Factors that Help and Hinder the Reform to Community-Based Mental Health Services

Since the mid-1970s the mental health services have attempted to decrease the number of psychiatric beds and decrease the number of services given on an in-patient basic, while simultaneously developing community-based services that are accessible and available to the public at large. Despite all the efforts, the attempts at instituting this reform have not gone well. This article begins with a brief description of the social and organization state of the mental health service,s the reform plans, the major events that have occurred in attempts to institute the reform, and factors that have helped and hindered the process.

This paper appears as a chapter in the book Formulating Social Policy in Israel, Uri Aviram, Johnny Gal and Yosef Katan (editors).

This paper is in Hebrew only.