The Reform of Rehabilitation in the Community of Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities: Lessons from the Israeli...

Purpose is to present the mental health rehabilitation reform enacted in Israel in 2000, and to analyze the challenges it faces in its second decade of implementation. Lessons are drawn with regard to other jurisdictions interested in reforming mental health services. 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. Analysis focuses on the system's clients, budget, personnel and services-and on its functional environment. During the past decade, the rehabilitation services have considerably expanded. However they cover only about one-fifth of the target population. Paper discusses the mutual dependency between the rehabilitation services and the recently implemented (mid-2015) mental health insurance reform, emphasizing the importance of the rehabilitation system's efficient and effective functioning to the success of that reform and improvement of the mental health services in general.