Residential care centers for persons with intellectual disability in Israel: Trends in the number of nursing care patients during 1998-2009

One of the first descriptions of nursing of people with intellectual disability (ID) is from the United States at the New York Hospital around 1808. Over the next 200 years ID nursing has developed into a subspecialty in both the United States and England with a curriculum and certification. This process has yet to take place in Israel, but it is a change we would like to see in the coming years. The purpose of this paper was to look at the trend in the number of nursing patients in residential care centers for people with intellectual disability in Israel. Data was extracted from the 1998-2009 national annual surveys of all residential care centers in Israel. Over this period, we found that the number of nursing patients had been fairly constant, ranging from 23.9% of the total population in 1998 to 24.6% in 2009. While the percent of nursing patients has remained steady, the burden of nursing has increased. Specifically, due to the aging of this population, residential care centers are now dealing with an increased quantity and complexity of medical problems. As a result, we have experienced a need to establish, on a regional basis, long-term nursing care facilities within our residential care centers.