System flexibility in the rehabilitation process of mentally disabled persons in a hostel that bridges between the hospital and the community.

Background: Deinstitutionalization and community mental health services have become the focus of mental health care in the United States, Italy and England, and now in Israel.

Methods: Tirat Carmel MHC developed an intervention model of organizational change implemented in a rehabilitation hostel. It is an interim service based on graduated transition from maintenance care to a transitional Half-way House, followed by a Transitional Living Skills Center oriented for independent community living.

Results: Of 205 rehabilitees who resided in the hostel since the beginning of the project, 138 were discharged to community residential settings: 67 patients were discharged to reinforced community hostels; 27 to sheltered housing and 23 to independent residential quarters; 7 patients were discharged to comprehensive hostels, 3 to old-age homes and 11 returned home to their families. In terms of employment, 79 were placed in sheltered employment facilities, 24 work in the open market and 3 returned to school; 22 work in therapeutic occupational settings and 10 patients discharged to comprehensive hostels and old-age homes are engaged in sheltered employment programs in those settings.

Conclusion: The system flexibility model and the rehabilitation processes anchored in normalization supported the relocation of hospitalized psychiatric patients to community-based settings and enabled the rehabilitees to cope with readjustment to community life.