I want

Community-Based Outpatient Mental Health Therapy

Revital Ordan, Psychiatric nurse
15 June 2025

Intensive therapy delivered in the community is known as outpatient psychiatric care, and its goal is to assist individuals managing a serious mental health crisis in avoiding psychiatric hospitalization and instead recovering in their local community. Numerous group and individual therapies are available during outpatient treatment. The extensive therapeutic work and the defined daily routine are held in one complex, creating a "therapeutic environment" that helps prevent hospitalization while helping the individual regain function in various areas of life, even when the coping is complex.

Therapy is provided in the community by the HMOs, the outpatient (clinical) service of the psychiatric and general hospitals, associations and entrepreneurs who operate outpatient mental health services.

Scope of the stay in outpatient treatment: outpatient psychiatric treatment requires the patient to arrive at the therapeutic program between 3-5 days a week for full treatment days, based on a predetermined daily routine and therapeutic plan.

Outpatient treatment specializes in certain areas. In addition to outpatient psychiatric treatment that is intended for adults, there are also frameworks that specialize in the care of children and adolescents. In recent years, specialization has been expanding, including the establishment of dedicated outpatient therapy that focuses on specific mental health disabilities such as eating disorders, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, women with postpartum depression, etc.

Application and admission to outpatient treatment

To receive the service, you must contact a care provider, psychiatrist or mental health professional and request a detailed letter of referral for outpatient treatment. If the outpatient treatment is not provided by the HMO, you must obtain prior authorization (Form 17) from the HMO. Admission to the program is subject to HMO approval in advance. Upon receipt of the letter of referral, the outpatient program will issue an update regarding the admission process, the date of the assessment (intake) appointment and the estimated waiting time.

If the outpatient treatment is not directly provided by the HMO, it will be covered by prior authorization (Form 17) from the HMO, There is a quarterly deductible in the amount of tens of thousands of shekels.

Outpatient psychiatric treatment is an intensive treatment service intended for people who are dealing with serious mental distress and complex mental conditions, and its purpose is to help stabilize the mental state, promote recovery and prevent the need for psychiatric hospitalization in a hospital.

Outpatient treatment offers various individual and group therapies by a multidisciplinary staff that includes psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers and other practitioners. The therapy is provided in a special complex that creates a therapeutic environment for people who arrive between 3 and 5 times a week, for 6 hours each time. The program provides at least one hot meal per day of therapy. Most outpatient programs operate in the morning, but some operate in the afternoon and evening to allow patients to maintain employment or academic continuity, even if part-time.

NOTE

NOTE

Recent years have witnessed an increasing trend of establishing designated outpatient therapy that specialize in specific mental health disabilities such as eating disorders, complex post-trauma, women with postpartum depression, etc.

  • Who is suitable for outpatient treatment?

    Outpatient psychiatric treatment is intended for people coping with severe mental health crisis that cannot be controlled in a clinic setting, and for whom there is concern that without intensive mental health care they will need psychiatric hospitalization.

  • Who is not suitable for outpatient treatment?

    • Individuals in a life-threatening mental state who require observation and continuous medical care in a hospital setting, such as an immediate risk of suicide or severe self-harm.
    • Individuals suffering from an uncontrolled physical illness that requires continuous monitoring and medical care in a hospital setting.
    • Individuals suffering from anti-social, violent, sexual or severely aggressive behavior that may sabotage the program’s operations.
    • Individuals diagnosed with active addictions that require detoxification.

Where outpatient services are provided

Outpatient psychiatric care is provided within the confines of special programs in the community by the HMOs, the outpatient (clinical) service of the psychiatric and general hospitals and by associations and entrepreneurs who operate outpatient mental health services.

List of Psychiatric Outpatient Treatment Centers in Israel (Hebrew)

Application and admission to outpatient treatment - step by step

  • 1
    Contacting a care provider

    To receive the service, you must contact a care provider, psychiatrist or mental health professional and request a detailed letter of referral for outpatient treatment.

  • 2
    HMO approval and financing

    If the outpatient treatment is not provided by the HMO, you must obtain prior authorization (Form 17) from the HMO. Admission to outpatient treatment is subject to HMO approval in advance.

  • 3
    Outpatient treatment review and update

    Upon receipt of the letter of referral, the outpatient program will issue an update regarding the admission process, the date of the assessment (intake) appointment and the estimated waiting time.

NOTE

NOTE

There is a similar service known as psychiatric outpatient treatment, intensive therapy that is provided in an outpatient framework with no overnight stay. The purpose of psychiatric outpatient treatment is to maintain continuity of care while gradually reducing its intensity and assisting the patient to return to their lives in the community.

Procedures you should know (Hebrew)