Counseling Service for the Elderly

The elderly population in Israel is growing. Many elderly people, particularly those age 75 or older, are in both financial and emotional distress, and are even living in physically dangerous conditions. Many of the elderly live alone and feel lonely, neglected and rejected. They are not always capable of looking after themselves, exercising their rights and taking advantage of the health and welfare services created for them by the community.

However, there are younger retirees who are ready and willing to help the elderly in distress. These two groups come together in the Counseling Service for the Elderly Department.

The counseling is a professional service managed by teams of social workers in each of the local branches of the National Insurance Institute.

The service operates different support groups at the branches for elderly people undergoing various crises at this stage of their lives.

The Counseling Service for the Elderly operates support groups for elderly people in various crisis situations which occur at this stage of their lives. The types of groups vary from one branch to another, and are determined according to the unique needs of the local population. The most common types of support groups are for new retirees, widows and widowers, divorcees, and the families of Alzheimer’s patients.

The Counseling Service for the Elderly holds information days to present the service to the elderly and to provide them with information on their rights in the National Insurance Institute and in other institutions. The most common information days are aimed at new retirees, divorcees, widows and widowers.

The service in the Counseling for the Elderly departments is provided either during the reception hours in the branches or at other times by advance arrangement.

The courses are held at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Haifa University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the Jordan Valley College and the Weitz Center for Development Studies in Rehovot.

The duration of the course is 16 sessions, which include a professional tour of an old age home and entities that provide services to the elderly in the community. The courses are advertised in the national and local newspapers.

The department’s volunteers are given various activities to reward them for their work on behalf of the community in the framework of the National Insurance Institute.

The volunteers in the Counseling Service for the Elderly at various branches have written about touching stories, as they share their feelings and thoughts, in order to call the attention of the public to the problems inherent in old age and the personal significance of those problems.