A review with future visions for child health services in Israel

A review of child health services in Israel is presented by putting the economic and social forces relevant for the development of services into an historic perspective. It is argued that optimism in the peace process, economic growth and later stagnation resulted in an alliance between parents, teachers and medical professionals pushing the medical care system for better assessment and early intervention in case of children with impairment, disability or mental retardation. The size of the populations of children, the disabled and the mentally retarded persons is presented and compared to data from other countries. A good child health service will result in earlier intervention and prevention of problems in adolescence. In order to provide a scientific database, develop and evaluate services for the next millenium the need for a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Israel is presented with the hope that it will be established by the time we enter the 21(st) century.