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Community Rehabilitation Services

Shira Bigon, Social Worker and Senior Field Director, Education, Culture and Recreation, Ministry of Health
3 September 2025

Community rehabilitation services are meant to help people with mental health disabilities live in the community by teaching them how to do things on their own. People who need close supervision and training and have trouble doing daily tasks on their own are the ones this service is meant for. Community rehabilitation support services are an important part of helping people with mental health disabilities get better because they help them become independent, learn life skills, and fit in with their new community.

What community rehabilitation services include

  1. Supervision and instruction on daily skills such as house management, meal preparation and budget management.
  2. Assistance getting benefits from various agencies.
  3. Development of self-advocacy skills.
  4. Assist with keeping clean and living a healthy life.
  5. Being less dependent on other people and the world around them.
  6. Building up your self-confidence and discovering your own life's purpose.

The counselor works with you slowly and adjusts their pace to fit your needs. The counselor will watch over you at the start of every move and then encourage you to do things on your own. The goal being the development of independence and reinforcement of your functional skills during your rehabilitation.

Who is a rehabilitation counselor?

A rehabilitation counselor is someone over the age of 21 who has been trained in mental health rehabilitation in the community. The counselor's job is to watch over the person with a mental health disability and teach them how to live on their own. The counselor gets professional training from someone who works for the service provider.

Up to six hours a week, the counselor comes to the person's home who has a mental health disability. You can make changes to the schedule to make it work for both of you.

Eligibility for community rehabilitation services

In order to get the service, you must specify your needs on the application form for the rehabilitation basket. If you are already eligible for the rehabilitation basket, you need to get in touch with the rehabilitation counselor in a service you already use. The Rehabilitation Basket Board will look at who can get the service.

Having a mental health crisis makes it hard for you to do things in every part of your life. Beginning with managing your own daily life, moving on to managing your family and friends, your money, your recovery, and so on. Community rehabilitation services are meant to help you become more independent so that you can handle daily tasks and fit in with the community.

A rehabilitation counselor helps people get better by helping them. The rehabilitation counselor is just like having a friend by your side as you work toward full rehabilitation. One of the counselor's jobs is to help you get better and get back to the life you had before the mental health crisis. But it is important to know that your counselor is more than just someone who helps you with tasks. They play a big role in your journey to becoming independent, giving you more faith in your own abilities and self-worth. We will explain in more detail how this works below.

Who is the service meant for?

The community rehabilitation services are designed for people with mental health disabilities who live in their home in the community (and not in designated housing).

Anyone who lives in the area can use the service, whether they own their own apartment, rent, or live with their parents. A rehabilitation counselor can help you if you need help and training in many areas of your life and can not handle life's tasks on your own.

What the community rehabilitation services include?

Up to six hours a week, the counselor comes to the person's home once or twice a week to help them with their mental health. This number of hours is based on your condition, your level of function, your needs, and the rehabilitation plan that professionals made for you. You and the counselor will work out the best days and times for the counselor to come to your house. It will depend on your schedules and the counselor's schedule.

The counselor can help you with many things:

In your meetings, the counselor will assist, accompany, and guide you in the various areas of life, aiming to strengthen the daily functional skills that are important for your integration into the community. The counselor will encourage you, increase your motivation, and work with you on developing independence. Initially, the counselor will accompany you every step of the way but will gradually let you gain experience on your own because the goal is to enable you to take care of yourself in areas such as:

  • Management of the house and daily life: the counselor will help you develop methods for maintaining order and organization at home, such as establishing regular places for objects and cleaning and preparing a house cleaning schedule. The counselor can teach you to prepare an organized shopping list based on your needs and to become economically efficient in your shopping. In addition, the counselor will teach you to prepare simple, healthy meals while supervising you during cooking.
  • Budget management: the counselor will help you understand your income and expenses, prepare a monthly budget, define orders of priority, save money for important things, and teach you to properly manage your money.
  • Get the benefits offered by various agencies: the counselor can help you understand your rights in various agencies (such as National Insurance, Ministry of Health, etc.) and help you complete forms, accompany you to meetings in the agencies, and help you with the red tape.
  • Self-advocacy: the counselor will help you develop an ability to express your needs and desires in a clear and confident manner so that you can cope with situations in which you need to protect yourself and your rights against others in the best possible manner.
  • Development of awareness of maintaining personal hygiene: the counselor will help you understand the importance of maintaining personal hygiene, will teach you how to perform daily actions such as brushing teeth, bathing, and personal grooming, and will remind you to perform these actions.
  • Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, medical monitoring, and taking medications: the counselor will help you understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including a proper diet and physical activity. The counselor can teach you how to follow up on medical recommendations, take your medications on time, and generally monitor your health.

The rehabilitation counselor will give you tools and support that will help you gradually and at your own pace to reduce your dependency on others. The counselor will help you cope with the challenges and obstacles you have in a unique and personalized manner for you. On the one hand, the counselor will focus on the actions you must take but, on the other hand, will also dedicate time to understanding your difficulties and coping with the emotions that flood you. The counselor will help you strengthen your social and interpersonal skills, such as planning your schedule, prioritization, organization in the morning, etc. During the process, your relationships with the environment will become stronger and you will connect to the community.

Through the counselor's care and support, you can improve your self-esteem and begin speaking in terms of recovery. The counselor will help you find meaning in your life. The counselor will provide you with positive reinforcement when you successfully take the steps, both small and large. It is important to remember: the counselor is there for you. The counselor will help you empower your sense of self-confidence and capability, both inside and outside the home. You should ask the counselor to help you fulfill your goals, whether it involves learning to use public transportation, finding your way around community services, or mentoring you with regards to employment. The counselor will be with you through every stage of the process until you succeed in doing everything on your own without help or supervision.

The rehabilitation counselor and the counseling coordinator

A rehabilitation counselor is someone over the age of 21 who has been trained in integrating people with mental health challenges in the community but might not have a professional license. The counselor will watch over you and teach you how to get better before you go out on your own in different areas where you need guidance, support, and help. The counselor is emotionally strong enough to help you through a tough time.

A counseling coordinator is a key figure in the rehabilitation counseling services. The service provider chooses the counselor, who must have training in social work, psychology, or another therapeutic field. They must also know how to run rehabilitation programs and lead teams.

The coordinator will meet you immediately at the beginning of the process and accompany you for as long as you receive rehabilitation counseling services. The coordinator is in charge of finding a counselor for each person at the start and throughout the process. They will check to make sure that you are getting the support and services that meet your personal and professional needs. If necessary, the coordinator will make the necessary changes.

Also, the coordinator trains counselors professionally by meeting with them on a regular basis, keeping an eye on their work, and teaching them what to do in different situations. The coordinator also keeps an eye on the counselors' behavior, the progress of the rehabilitation plan, and the quality of the service to make sure it meets professional standards.

How to choose a rehabilitation counselor

If you have a certain priority, it is important to mention it to the coordinator, whose job it is to assign counselors to people and assist them in implementing the professional plan. The counselor placement process is customized to your preferences, although based on the pool of existing counselors. If you do not have specific preferences, the coordinator will assign you the next available counselor. It is important to know that if you decide that the counselor is not right for you, the coordinator will find you another one.

Training to become a rehabilitation counselor

The service provider hires and oversees the counselor. The coordinator's job is to teach and direct the counselor in his or her work and keep an eye on the counselor's behavior at all times. The counselor gets at least two hours of training every month, and they meet with the coordinator regularly. The counselor will go to trainings and conferences as part of his job to improve their skills. In the first six months, the counselor undergoes training on how to integrate people with mental health in the community. 

How to apply for community rehabilitation services

If you already have a rehabilitation basket

If you already have an approved rehabilitation basket but are not eligible for rehabilitation counseling services, you can contact the person supervising you on behalf of the Rehabilitation Basket Board (generally the rehabilitation basket director), for every other service you are receiving. In your application, you must discuss your need to receive this service.

The relevant party will contact the district Rehabilitation Basket Board, which will review eligibility for the counseling service.

If you do not have a rehabilitation basket

If you choose to submit the application on your own or to use aid agencies, please read here about submitting an application for a rehabilitation basket.

You must write that you need rehabilitation counseling on the service application form. Once the form is turned in, the first Rehabilitation Basket Board will meet to decide who is eligible for certain rehabilitation services. This board can reconsider the application and stress how important it is to be eligible for the counseling service.

The Board will look at who is eligible for the different rehabilitation services, such as counseling services for rehabilitation, and send its decision.

Ending the rehabilitation counseling services

No matter who makes the decision to end a contract—you, the coordinator, or the counselor—it will be done professionally and with the help of your community counselors.

Important to know

Important to know

After three months, if your mental health gets so bad that you need to be hospitalized or stay in a psychiatric hospital for more than three months, the service will end. An option will be available to renew the service approximately one month before discharge.

Rehabilitation Basket Services

Housing

Education

Assistance Acquiring Basic Equipment for Living

Dental Treatment for People in Recovery

Leisure time

Mentoring

Household Help

Treatment Coordination