The National School for Training in Rehabilitation and Recovery in Mental Health was established in 2011 at Ono Academic College and operates under the supervision and funding of the Mental Health Division of the Ministry of Health. The school holds courses and training for various rehabilitation professionals who deal with the field of mental health (patients and family members, medical, rehabilitation, care professionals, etc.) in order to promote the professional quality of employees. At the basis of the school’s learning is the belief in the ability of a person with a psychiatric disability to heal, integrate and live a meaningful life in his or her community. At the basis of the rehabilitation work is the perception that continuous learning, updating, and knowledge are the core of the process. Therefore, in addition to courses and training, the school deals with the promotion, expansion, and marketing of the subject of rehabilitation in mental health in Israel and around the world. The school maintains an active library on the subject and also deals with monitoring, evaluation, and feedback on various existing training programs.
The school’s raison d’etre is instilling the values of rehabilitation, integration, and recovery. It builds, develops, and promotes training and learning processes for transferring knowledge, values, perceptions, and skills in the field of mental health rehabilitation. Its work implements recovery-promoting interventions for patients, families, professionals, and rehabilitation workers. To this end, the school maintains collaborations with a wide range of institutions, including higher education programs in Israel and around the world and bodies that support rehabilitation and recovery. The school will expand its collaborations in the coming years.
In recent years, the school’s activities focused on multiculturalism. It held special courses and workshops for Arab society and the ultra-Orthodox sector. Also, starting this year, the school has set itself the goal of expanding the ranks of learners from the mental health treatment system.
The entire therapeutic-rehabilitative community is required during this period to create orderly work interfaces, communication, and mutual learning in order to pool resources and improve, enable, promote, and establish processes of treatment, rehabilitation, integration, and recovery for those dealing with mental disability and their families.
As part of a policy based on the principles of the care-rehabilitation continuum, we believe that values, approaches, and professional tools should be the common domain of service consumers, professionals, and family members.
The school conducts various studies and training in several areas of the country: at Ono Academic College, at its northern campus in Haifa, and at its southern campus in Beer Sheva. Also, as needed, courses are also given elsewhere in the country.
As stated, in light of the importance of the School of Rehabilitation, the therapeutic-rehabilitation continuum, and the promotion of dialogue between the community rehabilitation system and the treatment system, professional workers from the treatment system (hospitals, mental health clinics, and HMOs) are invited to join the courses, based on availability. In some situations, 70% of the course costs are subsidized.
Between 2011 and 2018, the school held courses and workshops in which more than 4,000 students studied, including people from the various professions involved in professional rehabilitation, consumers, families, and workers from the treatment system – hospitals and mental health clinics.
In addition, courses were held in collaboration with JDC Israel, with the community centers, with Clalit Health Fund, and more.
We see compatible and up-to-date training of professionals engaged in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation as a necessary condition for the provision of quality and effective services. The National School of Rehabilitation Training Integration and recovery in mental health serves as a value-based, perceptual, theoretical, and applied basis for the training and guidance of professionals as mental health rehabilitation professionals and thus provides a foundation for promoting and improving service quality for the well-being of the person with mental disability and family members.
Management of the National School for Rehabilitation, Integration, and Recovery in Mental Health:
Headquarters of the Rehabilitation Division, Mental Health Division, Ministry of Health: