History of geriatric psychiatry in Israel

This article describes the history of a relatively new branch in Israel's psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry. The unique features of Israel are described: a young country with an ancient history, uninterrupted migration waves, including the elderly strata, the reactivation of traumatic experiences in elderly Holocaust survivors and the impact of the security situation in particular on the elderly population. There is a growing awareness of the importance of geriatric psychiatry, in connection with the above features, with a quite rapid development of this branch in the country. Developing services are described, as are research projects and the contribution made by Israel's geriatric psychiatrists in the development of the field.