The Transition from Psychiatric Hospitalization to Community Living: Local and Current Challenges

While extensive efforts have been made in recent decades to enhance community mental health services around the world and in Israel, less attention has been given to the challenging transitional period from psychiatric hospitalization to community living. The current paper reviews the literature on discharge planning programs, which shows that using an interdisciplinary team and adapting a case management model to include overlapping relationships during the process of changing settings might lead to cost-effective outcomes. It is argued here that the current Israeli reform allows an opportunity to reconsider clients' needs and budget priorities, as doing so might lead to the development and implementation of appropriate discharge planning programs.