Rivlin asks to restart visits for state-run hostel residents with disabilities

President Reuven Rivlin has asks Health Minister Yaakov Litzman consider allowing visits by family members to those with physical and mental disabilities living in hostels operated by the state or on its behalf.

“I ask you to take into account the genuine crisis that may be created among those with disabilities who are cut off from their families,” the president writes in a letter to Litzman.

“It is very possible that the severe psychological implications of this kind of isolation justifies a relaxation of the policy of limitations on visits, or at least a clearer distinction between those in risk groups and those for whom isolation is a greater danger to them,” he adds.