תוכניות השכלה אקדמית נתמכת באוניברסיטאות בישראל לסטודנטים המתמודדים עם מחלת נפש: העזרה הניתנת ודרכים לקדם שילוב חברתי ואקדמי

Supported Education Programs were developed in universities and colleges in Israel as part of rehabilitation services. Their goal is to help students coping with mental illness in overcoming barriers and difficulties experienced during their studies through mentoring services. Despite the importance of these services for students, there is limited knowledge of the services they receive. Therefore, a study was conducted to examine the extent to which students coping with mental illness find the support services of the Supported Education Programs helpful and to evaluate their relationships with the mentors. The study was a mixed-methods study integrating quantitative and qualitative methods with 80 students coping with mental illness who are eligible for rehabilitation services. The study used an instrument developed for this purpose in five academic institutions. The findings indicate that students evaluated the help they received to overcome learning and study-management difficulties higher than support for academic and social inclusion barriers. The lowest ranked area was the help with accessibility barriers. The nature of the relationship with the mentor, the flexibility of the relationship, and personal support were found to be significant in advancing social and academic inclusion. In light of the findings, the emphasis on the help provided to students should extend beyond coping with academic assignments to include social and academic inclusion. Therefore, there is a need to expand the support services of the Supported Education Programs and to develop interventions also within the social and organizational environment of universities and colleges.