Researchers: Shaked Gilboa¹, Iris Vilnai-Yavetz¹, Lital Barlev², Tali Seger-Guttmann¹, Sivan Albagli-Kim³, Mitchell Schertz⁴

Background: Parents of children with disabilities encounter numerous barriers within the healthcare system.

Objectives: a. Identifying the barriers that prevent parents from exercising their rights to access treatment.
b. Establishing priorities for addressing these barriers.
c. Identifying segments of parents in order to tailor services to their needs.

Method: Applying marketing and service-oriented tools: mapping barriers through social media analysis; conducting in-depth interviews with professionals and parents; administering a parent survey followed by segmentation and importance–performance analyses; and developing integrated customer journey maps.

Findings: The main barriers identified were prolonged waiting times for appointments with professionals, bureaucratic procedures related to approvals and reimbursements, and a lack of information. Differences emerged among the general Jewish population, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and the Arab population. Parents in the ultra-Orthodox community reported the highest number of barriers, followed by parents in the general Jewish population, while no barriers were reported among parents in the Arab population. Among Jewish parents (both general and ultra-Orthodox), differences were observed according to the child’s type of disability: parents of children with ADHD and autism reported a higher number of barriers compared to parents of children with disabilities that can be diagnosed rapidly.

Conclusions: The parent population differs according to sectoral affiliation and the child’s type of disability, which determines the parents’ level of vulnerability. No effect of peripherality was found. However, further examination of the Arab population is needed.

Recommendations: a. Establishing integrated care centers separate from diagnostic centers.
b. Introducing more flexible funding policies for private treatments.
c. Creating case manager positions for children with complex disabilities .
d. Establishing a formal communication channel among professionals in the health, education, and welfare sectors.

Research end date: 09/2025