Nursing Homes

This portal contains information about the various situations in which the state provides assistance for institutional arrangements (nursing homes).

Upon reaching retirement age, a person is eligible to receive funding assistance for an institutional arrangement (nursing home) through the state. Assistance is provided as long as the individual requesting it meets certain criteria, including level of functioning and income. One of three possible Israeli government bodies is responsibility for such arrangements, depending on the functional condition of the individual for whom placement is required:

• The Ministry of Health is responsible for long-term care and mentally frail seniors.
• The Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services is responsible for the elderly who are defined as independent or physically frail.
• Health plans are responsible for the elderly who are defined as requiring complex long-term care.

Important: In order to place an elderly person in a nursing home, his/her consent, or the consent of his/her legal guardian is required.

See also…

• Old Age and Aging
• Housing for the Elderly
• Senior Health
• סידור מוסדי לבני הגיל השלישי (בית אבות)

Definitions

• Independent Senior
• Physically Frail
• Long-Term Care Senior
• Mentally Frail
• Complex Long-Term Care Patient

Types of Institutional Arrangements

• Financial Assistance for Nursing Home Care for Independent and Physically Frail Seniors
• Institutional Arrangements for Long-Term Care and Mentally Frail Seniors
• Institutional Arrangements for the Elderly Requiring Complex Long-Term Care
• Nofshon (Short-term housing) for Senior Citizens

Additional Information

• Ministry of Health Assistance in Paying for Hospitalization of Nursing and Mentally Frail Patients on the Ministry of Health's English website
• Information regarding nursing homes and public assisted living on the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services website
• Information about nursing homes and sheltered housing on the Reut - Mishpacha Metapelet website
• Nursing homes, sheltered housing and assisted living on the Eshelnet (JDC-Israel) website
• Right to vote in local elections in elderly centers and sheltered senior housing
• Placement of a cold water cooler in public buildings

Aid organizations

• For a comprehensive listing of organizations that help senior citizens and the elderly, click here.
• For a comprehensive categorized listing of healthcare organizations offering assistance and support, click here.
• For a comprehensive categorized listing of aid organizations offering assistance and support for people with disabilities, click here.

Government agencies

• The Ministry of Health
  • The Geriatric Department on the Ministry of Health website.
• The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services

Court Rulings

• The operator of a sheltered housing facility is not responsible if an independent tenant slips and falls in his/her own room
• Someone who lived with his parents in a sheltered housing facility for the elderly cannot be recognized as a successive tenant

Laws & Regulations

• The Sheltered Housing Law, 5772-2012
• The Supervision of Institutional Residences Law
• The National Health Insurance Law

Additional publications

• EshelNet website: Rights in institutional frameworks for the elderly

Credits

• Original translation performed by The Shira Pransky Project as part of a grant from The Fellowship Fund.