The Knesset Health Committee, chaired by MK Yonatan Morshiki, held a special session this week on implementing Israel’s national Alzheimer’s and dementia plan. The discussion focused on treatment, support, and follow-up for patients and their families, against the backdrop of bureaucratic and medical obstacles facing tens of thousands of Israeli households.
Dr. Inbal Maayan, head of Tzabar Refuah, presented data on the country’s largest home-hospitalization system. She said the network provides about 600,000 hospitalization days a year, conducts roughly 1,000 home visits daily, and treats about 2,200 patients at any given time with a staff of around 900 professionals. To date, she said, the company has treated about 180,000 patients in home-based frameworks.
Maayan warned that dementia care in Israel lacks a continuous treatment path and that no single official body accompanies patients and families throughout the long course of the disease. She said families are forced to navigate the system alone, and only a very small share of dementia patients eventually reach hospice services. Despite some increase in public awareness, she said, major gaps remain in identifying patients and in referrals by community family doctors.
She added that many patients do not meet hospice’s strict criteria for long periods because dementia progresses slowly and does not always fit standard end-of-life definitions. For that reason, she said, Israel urgently needs a dedicated intermediate model for advanced dementia patients who are treated at home. Maayan also noted that Tzabar Refuah provides home hospitalization for ultra-Orthodox dementia patients in a way that fits their lifestyle, allowing them to remain near family, continue visiting their synagogue, and stay within a familiar community.
