Role of institutional and community services in meeting the long-term care needs of the elderly in Israel: the decade of the 1980s.

Israel faces a major challenge to its capacity to deal adequately with the needs of the chronically ill. This paper describes the present state of long-term care services for the chronically ill and documents the extensive disparities in the rate of institutional and community services by region. In view of the expected dramatic increase in the number of aged greater than or equal to 75 years old (from 106,800 to 181,500 between 1980 and 1990), the authors project a 50% increase in the need for institutional and community services just to maintain existing service patterns. The paper discusses the central issues related to the development of both types of services in response to the increase in needs.