Children with intellectual disability in residential care centers. Trends in Israel 1999-2004.

Children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) have historically gone through various stages from being left or activity killed, to being placed in care, to being rehabilitated or educated and today with efforts to keep as normal a life as possible inspite of their disability. This study was conducted in order to look at the trends of children with ID in residential care centers in Israel. Since 1998 an annual survey of all medical clinics in residentail care centers has been conducted by the Office of the Medical Director of the Ministry of Social Affairs and data was extracted from the national surveys during 1999-2004. Out of a total residential care population of about 6,000 persons with ID about 1,000 were children, but a downward trend was observed over the study period with children 18.1% of the total residential care population in 1999 to 14.4% in 2004 (a total of 954 persons aged 0-19 years in 2004). Further detailed studies should be conducted in order to get a clearer picture of this present pediatric population in residential care.