Sal Shikum Blurbs

Weekly Sal Shikum Blurb #001 Tevet 7, 5775 28/12/14

In the last few days, there has been an important dialogue about sal shikum. In order to better educate my English speaking colleagues about this valuable resource, I’m going to devote a weekly post about it. The information comes from public information available on the Internet as well as my own experience in practice. Since I’m breaking down a relatively large issue into bite size pieces, the info will be broken up in odd places; PLEASE BEAR WITH ME! Each entry will be also be available on my personal website: 
Sal Shikum refers to a program administered by the misrad habriut. The translation of sal shikum is ‘rehabilitation basket’ thus referring to a spectrum of services offered to the mentally ill. This law came into effect in 2000 as a response to the societal marginalization of the mentally ill who were being discharged from psychiatric hospitals. In essence, sal shikum became the next evolution in the process of community based psychiatric care. 
There are seven groups of services offered to this population:
1) Occupational rehabilitation
2) Housing solutions
3) Education including educational remediation
4) Social and recreational activities
5) Psychosocial assistance to the families of the mentally ill
6) Dental rehabilitation
7) Service coordination
In order to be eligible for any of these services, the individual must meet three criteria
1) must be over 18 years old
2) must already be certified by bituach leumi as handicapped
3) bituach leumi has determined that at least 40% of the handicap is due to psychiatric illness, the nature of which is NOT due to an organic or developmental disability. 
Stay tuned in!! There’s much more to follow.