Articles

A Long-Term Care Strategy for Israel: Ten Priorities for the Next Decade
Israel has many of the building blocks of an effective long-term care system, but they remain distributed across social insurance, healthcare, welfare, municipalities, providers, families and migrant caregiving. This final article in the Israel series sets out ten connected priorities for the next decade, focusing on prevention, community capacity, workforce, family support, financing, quality, integration, technology, equity and governance. Read more...
Building an Age-Ready Israel: What the Long-Term Care System Needs for 2040 and Beyond
By 2040, Israel will have substantially more older people, including rapid growth at the ages most associated with intensive long-term care need. Preparing for that future requires more than expanding today's services. This article examines the workforce, financing, community capacity, housing, technology, prevention, family support and governance infrastructure Israel will need to turn demographic foresight into an age-ready long-term care system. Read more...
Prevention as Long-Term Care Strategy in Israel: Delaying Dependency and Compressing Disability
Israel’s long-term care sustainability will depend partly on what happens before people require intensive formal support. This article examines prevention as a system strategy: maintaining function, reducing falls, managing chronic disease, protecting cognition, strengthening rehabilitation and creating environments that support independence. It explores how Israel can connect health promotion, health plans, local authorities, families and long-term care around a stronger objective—extending healthy and independent life rather than responding only after dependency has developed. Read more...
Financing Long-Term Care in Israel: Sustainability, Public Responsibility and Household Costs
Israel finances long-term care through a distinctive mix of National Insurance benefits, Ministry of Health support, health-system funding, household contributions, private purchasing and substantial unpaid family care. This article examines how those financial responsibilities interact, where costs shift between systems and families, and how population aging could reshape the balance between public entitlement, personal responsibility, workforce capacity and sustainable community care. Read more...
Housing for an Aging Israel: Designing Homes and Communities for Longer Independent Lives
Housing is becoming a central part of Israel’s aging policy as more people live longer with changing mobility, health and support needs. This article examines how ordinary homes, public senior housing, sheltered housing, neighborhood design, accessibility, community services and emergency resilience can work together to extend independent living while addressing affordability, inequality and the changing relationship between housing and long-term care. Read more...
Innovation in Israeli Aging Services: Turning Pilots and Startups into Scalable Care Models
Israel combines a strong technology ecosystem with health plans, public agencies, municipalities, research institutions and organizations experienced in developing new approaches to aging. The harder task is converting promising pilots into routine services that improve older people's lives at meaningful scale. This article examines the evidence, procurement, funding, workforce, governance and implementation conditions needed to move innovation from demonstration to sustainable care. Read more...
Remote Monitoring and Home-Based Care in Israel: Moving More Support Beyond Institutional Settings
Israel is increasingly able to move elements of clinical care, monitoring, rehabilitation and professional support into the home, supported by strong health-plan infrastructure and digital capability. The opportunity is larger than remote consultation alone: well-designed home-based models can connect clinical oversight, functional support, family caregiving and escalation around the person, provided monitoring leads to timely human action and does not transfer inappropriate responsibility onto families. Read more...
Artificial Intelligence in Israeli Aging and Long-Term Care: From Prediction to Responsible Practice
Artificial intelligence could help Israel identify deterioration earlier, support clinical and care decisions, reduce administrative burden and make better use of scarce workforce capacity. Its value in aging and long-term care will depend, however, on whether prediction leads to appropriate human action, whether algorithms work fairly across diverse populations, and whether privacy, accountability, transparency and professional judgment remain embedded in everyday care. Read more...
Assistive Technology and Smart Homes in Israel: Extending Independence Without Replacing Human Care
Assistive technology can help older people in Israel remain safer, more connected and more independent at home, but technology creates value only when it fits the person, the home and the wider care system. This article examines mobility and rehabilitation devices, sensors, medication support, communication tools and smart-home technology alongside funding, privacy, workforce practice, digital exclusion and the need to keep human relationships at the center of technology-enabled aging. Read more...
Digital Health and Connected Care for Older People in Israel
Israel has extensive electronic health records, mature health-plan digital infrastructure and growing mechanisms for health-information portability, creating significant potential for better care as its population ages. This article examines how digital health can support coordination, prevention, access and continuity for older people while addressing the harder challenges of connecting healthcare with long-term care, welfare, families and community services. Read more...
Leadership and Accountability in Israeli Aging Services: Governing Quality Across Organizational Boundaries
Israel’s aging system distributes responsibility across health plans, hospitals, the National Insurance Institute, welfare services, municipalities, long-term care providers, community organizations and families. This article examines what effective leadership looks like when no single organization controls the whole pathway, and how stronger accountability, shared evidence, escalation and learning can turn distributed responsibility into more coherent support for older people. Read more...
Quality Improvement in Israel’s Long-Term Care System: Turning Evidence Into Better Everyday Care
Improving long-term care in Israel requires more than regulation, inspection and service-volume monitoring. This article examines how health plans, ministries, the National Insurance Institute, municipalities, providers and care teams can turn indicators, incidents, complaints, reviews and lived experience into practical improvement that strengthens safety, continuity, independence and quality of life for older people. Read more...