Informal Counselling Services in Israel: A Challenge for the School Counsellor SHLOMO ROMI, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel This article focuses on the characteristics of informal counselling services (such as young people's counselling services or telephone counselling services) in Israel and gives examples of existing services. Manifest characteristics of the counselling services and psychological therapy in the public formal systems and informal systems, as well as a survey of updated literature on the subject of community voluntary psychological counselling services is presented. The informal counselling services are a challenge for school counsellors as supplementary to additional services given in school and offer the possibility of the integration of school counsellors into these programmes. Introduction The development of informal voluntary counselling services (in contrast to those provided privately) has created new patterns not normally found in the official formal system. These characteristics and patterns in- clude availability and accessibility, short-term coun- selling and communal activity, activities which have only recently been adopted by the formal system. The development of these services in Israel, which are available in the same or similar context in other countries throughout the world, i.e. Open Door, Radiophonic Counselling, Family Treatment Centres were introduced as a response to the referrals and needs of individuals and families under mental distress. They chose these services rather than formal or private conventional counselling services because of their special characteristics, i.e. stigma and costs. This need drove voluntary and public organization managements to expand service aids which they provide to the public. The purpose of this paper is to identify the special characteristics of these services in informal public community extra-curricular systems, after presenting examples of existing services. The investigation of these characteristics can assist in better understanding these services and developing and widening them, whilst strengthening the bond to the informal frame- work. In addition it will also help to focus training so that counsellors can provide for this type of service. The interdependent relations between the school counselling services and these extra-curricular coun- selling services are also considered. The paper con- cludes with an examination of the ethical aspects and difficulties in operating the informal psychological counselling systems. Counselling and Therapy in Formal/ Institutionalized Mental Health Services The appropriate place for counselling and therapy services, in the opinion of many researchers (i.e. Shnit, 1988) is in the framework of formal institutional systems qualified to function in a professional and legal manner. The term `formal systems' refers to statutory frame- works acting under the law of the State or in accord- ance with city regulations (Aviram and Levav, 1981). One example is the mental health centres of the Ministry of Health and mental health clinics acting under the Mental Health Act. Additional examples are Municipal Education Psychological Counselling Services, School Educational Counselling Services in accordance with the Compulsory Education Act and under the general manager's directives of the Min- istry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Labour and Welfare Social Services acting in accordance with social work regulations publicized from time to time by the ministry's general manager in the name of the minister. All of the domains mentioned above handle various levels of mental problems from a degree of relatively simple distress to severe mental disorders and illness. The professionals dealing in this field have back- grounds in medicine, i.e. psychiatrists, and other fields such as psychologists, social workers, edu- cational counsellors, occupational, movement, music and family counsellors and special education teachers. The variety of intervention is diverse, from diagnosis, treatment, and even hospitalization. 14 PASTORAL CARE ± SEPTEMBER 2001 # NAPCE 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA.