AB008. The rehabilitative daycare centers in Israel: when a dream meets reality

Abstract: The Rehabilitative Daycare Law [2000] was designed to ensure that a toddler with a disability will receive adequate care suited to his individual needs. Rehabilitative Daycare Regulations [2008] describe the treatment package for a toddler, according to his medical and functional status. The regulations differentiate between toddlers with special medical needs, and with complex medical needs. In Israel, there are 125 rehabilitation daycares, with approximately 3,000 toddlers. At the enactment of the law, the increase in survival preterm infants and children with severe and chronic illness was not anticipated. The rehabilitation daycare population has become medically more complex. The population nowadays includes many toddlers with special and complex medical needs. The regulations state that the response to the toddler’s needs will be given by the addition of assistant's or nursing hours if he meets special medical criteria. In 2017, 170 infants entitled to rehabilitation daycare were entitled to have a privet nurse and more than 230 to privet assistance. This creates a legal requirement for employment of several nurses in the same rehabilitation daycare, and even class, without professional justification. In many daycares, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, a “workaround” routine made possible to recruit staff, but currently there’s a growing gap between rule of law and staff reality. Today we are in the process of updating the rehabilitative daycare regulations. Cancel the concepts ‘special and complex medical needs’, have one nurse for a class of ten toddlers with more assistances with more medical authorities after suitable training.

Keywords: Toddler; rehabilitation day care center; complex medical needs; special medical needs