Perceived altruism: a neglected factor in initial intervention.

Perceived altruism, an attitude that clients may attribute to those who work with them, was examined in a qualitative and quantitative study about the impact of volunteers in drop-in centers for youth at risk in Israel. Data were collected by interviews, observations, case studies, and questionnaires. The results show that the volunteers' unique contribution affected the service as a whole. The beneficiaries knew that volunteers were servicing them, perceived volunteers as true altruists, were satisfied to the degree of preferring their services over that of paid workers, and were positively affected by the encounter with volunteering. A significant impact was that volunteers set a living example of the possibility of human goodness via personal encounters and demonstrated the existence of a responsive society with mutual, unconditional caring. These results exhibit practical implications for innovative interventions with youth at risk and illustrate the significance of the psychology of goodness.

The role of the social worker in the face of terrorism: Israeli community-based experience.

Terrorism and its aftermath have become part of the Western way of life, and social workers have a central role to play in helping affected families and their communities. Drawing on community-based experience in Israeli communities, the authors examine the planning of multidisciplinary teams and how their planning was put into effect in their communities in several terrorist attacks. The authors use reports of social workers, community volunteers, and clients to map the phases of the activity, the roles and goals of the social workers with different focal systems during the phase stages, and the tasks that the social workers carried out.

Keeping and disclosing a secret among people with HIV in Israel.

This study examined the association of key variables with the intention to disclose and actual disclosure to an additional significant other of being HIV-infected. Sixty-five participants were recruited from five AIDS/HIV centers in Israeli hospitals. Participants completed questionnaires at entry to the study. They were asked about the extent to which they had already disclosed being HIV-infected, their intentions regarding future disclosure, and their emotional state; six months later their disclosure was examined. Depression and shame affected the intention to disclose the secret. Disclosure was associated with being male, having a high level of depression and shame, and having a low level of education. Participants with high levels of guilt who stated that they intended to disclose the secret were most likely to have done so. Implications for practice are discussed.

Showing results in community organization.

This article describes a community organization program and its tangible results in a stigmatized neighborhood in the center of Israel. The program lasted six years; its central goal was the autonomy of the community, the empowerment of its residents, and collaboration among the human services workers and between them and the resident leaders. The results, measured objectively and quantitatively, included a large increase in the number of community activists; strong and statistically significant increases of self-esteem and mastery of surroundings; increase in family, service delivery, and community empowerment among the activists, and the participation of residents and outsiders in a project to build their own homes in the neighborhood.