Jerusalem, 20 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Mazor Hospital in Acre houses the first closed psychiatric ward of its kind in Israel and the world. Instead of a nurses’ station, patients and staff stay together and prepare meals together, instead of forced treatment, conversations in the living room. The “Ogen” (anchor) ward operates on the basis of the balanced home model, which is designed to simulate a home environment as much as possible and is also available for involuntary hospitalizations. “I told myself that if someone doesn’t get along here, I can always transfer them to a regular ward,” says Dr. Laura Sharoni, one of the leaders of the initiative. “Two years have passed since then, and no one has been transferred.”
The “Ogen” ward is a closed psychiatric ward that was established in the spirit of “Sotria” – balancing houses that changed the perception of psychiatric treatment in the previous decade. “Ogen” has a similar model, which includes the first innovation of its kind in Israel and the world: the ward is located within the hospital and not in the community and is also intended for inpatients who are involuntarily staying in the ward.
In addition to the regular medical team of a psychiatrist in charge and nurses, Ogen also has companions, some without formal training, whose job is to stay with the patients on a regular basis. “One of the most important things was to blur the hierarchy between the people in charge as much as possible,” says Sharoni. “If there is a hierarchy within us – how can we not have a hierarchy between us and the patients? Of course, it is not absolute, and we have to fight for it all the time, but relatively speaking we are successful.”