Mental health services in Israel

Israel is a multicultural society in a state of permanent change. The population, of about 6.5 million, comprises the following religious groupings: Jews (77.5%), Muslims (15.3%), Christians (2.1%), Druzes (1.7%) and others (3.4%). The organisation of and the approaches used by the country’s health services have been determined by this socio-cultural plurality, and also by a continuous influx of immigrants (among whom, 882 600 and 44 200 arrived from countries of the former USSR and Ethiopia, respectively, between 1990 and 2001), as well as by the precarious security situation (the country has seen several wars with its neighbours in addition to the long-standing conflict with the Palestinians). The patterns of care of the population reflect both Western psychiatry and traditional systems. Because of such complexity, the present brief overview is necessarily selective.