Goals:
To develop a sustainable model that expands rehabilitation therapy for older people.
To incorporate the following five elements into the model: providing community intervention; providing centralized and preventive care; promoting a healthy lifestyle; involving the community in health maintenance and referral of patients to Misgav; and increasing professional supervision of older adults.
The Need:
In light of the dramatic rise in life expectancy and in the number of older people with disabilities, the need for rehabilitative intervention has increased. There is currently a shortage of geriatric rehabilitation facilities in Israel, inequality in services between centrally located cities and those in the geographic periphery, absence of a common standard for therapy, and lack of awareness of the importance of rehabilitating older people.
Target Population:
Older adults in functional decline due to an acute or chronic illness, and those in need of activities to preserve motor and cognitive functions.
Activities:
The plan is in the implementation stages. It includes:
- Developing a professional, operational, and economic model for rehabilitative geriatrics
- Activating the model with the help of organizations, associations, and businesses, and finding the optimal conditions for implementing it
- Investing in research to test the model
- Financing HMOs to enable implementation
