Mental Health Reform: The Israeli Experience

The Israeli mental health services are also in the process of reform. The major changes being attempted are: (a) to integrate mental health into the basket of general medical services provided by health maintenance organizations; (b) to convert state psychiatric hospitals to autonomous public trusts; (c) to relocate the focus of mental healthcare from hospitals run by the Ministry of Health to the community; (d) to subject mental healthcare to market forces, with the aim of containing costs and generating more cost-effective care; (e) for the Ministry of Health to divest itself of direct service provision by giving operational autonomy to its hospitals and outpatient clinics; (f) to strengthen the Ministry of Health's planning and oversight function; (g) to divest the district psychiatrist of all hospital administration functions and to restructure the psychiatrist’s role into the head of integrated regional mental health services.