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Herzog maintains the only unit in Israel specializing in the treatment of severe clinical depression. It is the leading force in the field of psychotrauma both in Israel and internationally. The Research Department has earned an outstanding international reputation for its groundbreaking work in genetics and Alzheimer's. A major teaching hospital, which provides training for Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, Herzog is teaching the next generation of specialists in geriatrics and psychiatry, as well as medical students, students of nursing, psychology and social work. The goal at Herzog Hospital is nothing less than optimal recovery so as to enable patients to return home to the highest possible quality of life. It strives to ensure that patients - even long-term ones - do not get institutionalized. Patients are treated comprehensively and not just for the illness that brought them to the hospital. This eliminates the 'revolving door syndrome' where a patient needs to be readmitted for complications shortly after being discharged, a common problem confronting hospital care. Herzog has been a pioneering force in developing methods of community treatment for both psychiatric and geriatric patients. Herzog Hospital has constantly adapted to meet changing needs. Established in 1895 for mentally ill Jerusalemites who were living on the streets, it became Israel's first psychiatric hospital at the turn of the century. In 1968, it moved to its present site in Givat Shaul, at the entrance to Jerusalem. In response to the acute shortage of geriatric facilities in Israel, the hospital opened its geriatric division in 1977, which has since grown from 26 beds to over two hundred, and now comprises 70% of the Hospital's 330 bed capacity.