This model created measurable social impact, enabled patient-centered, tailored and flexible evidence-based case management, promoted best practices for Meuhedet's members, and scaled nationally.
Gesher LaNefesh SIB
Gesher LaNefesh SIB
Reducing hospitalizations for those struggling with mental illness
The Project
A Social Impact Bond with a pay-for-success model to promote community mental health, the first in Israel and the sixth globally. The goal is to develop an advanced home and community treatment service for individuals struggling with severe psychiatric disorders, which will improve and stabilize their mental and physical condition, ensure they utilize their legal rights, connect them to rehabilitation services, and reduce the length and frequency of hospitalizations in psychiatric and general wards.
The intervention program is based on the FACT principles – Flexible Assertive Community Treatment.
The Impact
Each year, over 20,000 people are hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals in Israel. 78% of them are re-admitted. This phenomenon, known as the "revolving door," points to a shortage of community mental health services. Psychiatric hospitalization disrupts psychological and functional continuity, causes detachment from the patient’s support system and familiar, intimate home environment, and is often associated with regression, dependency development ("institutionalization"), and public and self-stigma.
By shifting the focus of treatment to the community, SFI, in collaboration with Meuhedet HMO and the Sharan Company, has developed an intensive and holistic therapeutic response for the at-risk population, aimed at reducing repeat psychiatric hospitalizations.
Outcomes to Date:
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52% reduction in total days of psychiatric hospitalization and number of admissions
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52% reduction in general hospitalization days
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31% reduction in ER visits
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Increase in rights realization: the proportion of participants without access to a rehabilitation basket dropped from 48% to 14%
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Improved community integration and quality of life for people coping with mental illness
Projected Financial Impact:
A net savings for the HMO of approximately 7 million NIS over a four-year measurement period, based on reductions in psychiatric hospitalization days alone.
Looking Ahead
52%
Reduction in total days of psychiatric hospitalization and number of admissions
79
Paricipants
3.1 million NIS
Investment in the project + 765K NIS Philanthropy
Partners
Meuhedet HMO and the Sharan Company. The project was made possible thanks to the generous donation from the estate of the late Bruno Landsberg.
Status
The intervention program has ended. Measurement will continue until 2027.
Service
Pay for Success Products
"We gave them hope, the promise of tomorrow. For people who succeed at an older age in making such a profound change in their lifestyle, it’s nothing short of a miracle in the world of psychiatry"
Dr. Mihael Bazhmin, MD, MHA | Head of Psychiatry Department, Sharan
33
Batim Hamim ("Warm Houses")
Measurement in the "Batim Hamim" Service
Developing and Implementing a Measurement Framework to Track Young Girls' Progress and Outcomes in the "Batim Hamim" Service
2000
Students
Momentum+
Increasing the Number of High School Students Studying Advanced Mathematics in Bedouin Society
$500,000
Invested in social ventures
Establishing a Social Impact Fund
Identifying and Investing in Income-Generating Social Ventures