Professional identity, perceived job performance and sense of personal accomplishment among social workers in Israel: The overriding significance of the working alliance.

This study examined the associations between social workers' professional identity and the quality of their work, as reflected by their perceived job performance and sense of personal accomplishment. Based on literature attesting to the contribution of the working alliance between social workers and their service-users to the attainment of interventions' goals, a model in which the working alliance mediated the associations between social workers' professional identity and the quality of their work was also tested. The study's sample consisted of 570 social workers in Israel, from a wide range of professional and organisational backgrounds. The study was cross-sectional, and data were gathered using an online questionnaire. Its results demonstrate direct effects of social workers' professional identity on the quality of their work. At the same time, social workers' working alliance with service-users acted as a mediator in the association between certain aspects of workers' professional identity and the quality of their work. These findings reassert and broaden understandings regarding the crucial role of relationships with service-users in the discussion of social work professional identity and its outcomes. The specific associations found also offer sustenance to the idea that autonomous social workers, who are committed to their profession, manage to generate stronger working alliances with their service-users; which in turn makes them better at what they do.

Religious Coping Strategies and Mental Health Among Religious Jewish Gay and Bisexual Men.

The present study examined the effects of positive and negative religious coping strategies on the mental health of 113 Israeli gay and bisexual Jewish males with high levels of religiosity, and how sexual identity formation (internalized homophobia and coming out) and societal variables (family and friends' acceptance of sexual orientation and social connections within the LGBT community) mitigated the effects of religious coping strategies on mental health. Findings showed that when dealing with the stress arising from the conflict between religious and sexual identities, individuals used both positive and negative religious coping strategies, but only negative religious coping was associated with poorer mental health. In addition, only in the presence of social resources (social connections with the LGBT community and the acceptance of sexual orientation by friends), did the use of positive religious coping result in better mental health outcomes. These findings underlined the importance of these resilience social factors in the lives of religious Jewish gay and bisexual men.

Binary phenomenon of hope: perceptions of traumatized veterans.

This is the second article in a phenomenological study of hope among 10 Israeli reserve soldiers with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. The aim of the second analysis was to learn about the veterans' conceptualization of hope. The picture of hope that emerges from the analysis of their interviews is of a binary phenomenon in which hope develops but may also be arrested, is conscious but also unconscious, and strengthens the individual but may also weaken one. These findings show the binary phenomenon of hope and how it contributes to coping with traumatic events and therefore can assist professional workers who treat individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Critical reflection to identify gaps between espoused theory and theory-in-use.

Critical reflection (CR) is a process by which one may identify the assumptions governing one's actions, question them, and develop alternative behaviors. This article presents two cases that demonstrate the use of CR to raise social workers' awareness of gaps between what Schon and Argryis term social workers' "espoused theories" and the "theories-in-use" that actually guide social workers' practice and to help them to develop more effective models of practice based on the understanding they gain. With this, the cases also show that CR can be a painful, even wrenching, process, in which practitioners confront previously unacknowledged qualities or tendencies in themselves that can evoke strong feelings.

Posttraumatic stress disorder patients' experiences of hope.

In this qualitative study we examined the experience and perception of hope of 10 Israeli soldiers with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the goal of achieving an understanding of the manners in which hope intertwines with trauma. The results indicate that hope is an integrative, changing, multidimensional phenomenon which plays a unique role in the individual's life. Viewing hope as a crucial aspect of human life was further evident when participants referred to the traumatic event. Hope and trauma are interconnected phenomena. The form of hope a person possesses thus shapes the manner in which the traumatic event is perceived, whereas the trauma clearly reshapes the individual's form of hope. We discuss practical implications for treatment of chronic PTSD, based on the important role of hope at times of trauma, as well as on the interrelation between hope and trauma.

Effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention model for persons with chronic psychiatric disorders in long-term hospitalization.

The article describes a psychosocial model of intervention with psychiatric patients in long-term hospitalization in a psychiatric ward in Israel and reports the findings of the evaluation conducted of its effectiveness. The model was aimed at maintaining or improving the patients' functioning in four main areas: personal hygiene, environmental maintenance, occupational competency, and social and recreational activities. For each patient, an individualized intervention program was designed and implemented by a personal case manager appointed from the ward's clinical staff. The programs involved family and ward staff as well as the patients themselves. The evaluation, based on comparison of monthly data for 4 months before and 12 months during the intervention, showed significant improvement in all but two areas of functioning: social functioning and psychiatric status. The findings, although in need of confirmation in larger, representative samples of patients in Israel and elsewhere, hold promise for effective intervention with patients whose treatment today consists largely of medication.

Stressful encounters with social work clients: a descriptive account based on critical incidents.

This article presents the findings of an analysis of 130 critical incidents reported by social workers in Israel. Almost all the incidents turned out to be upsetting events that caused the writers a great deal of pain, frustration, and self-doubt. Content analysis yielded four main categories of incidents or events: (1) client hostility and aggression toward the worker, (2) client behaviors that violated the unwritten rules of the profession or the workers' expectations, (3) inherent professional dilemmas, and (4) workers' personal issues. Although the events may not be typical of worker-client interactions, they tend to undermine the workers' professional confidence and color their entire work experience. Recommendations are made for training that better prepares social workers for the difficult situations they may encounter and for supervision that helps them to deal with such situations more effectively.

Social workers' and service users causal attributions for poverty.

Poverty and its etiology have been major subjects of concern for the social work profession throughout its history. This study focused on four causal attributions for poverty: social-structural, motivational, psychological, and fatalistic. More specifically, it examined the differences between social workers' and service users' perceptions of the causes of poverty. Participants were 401 service users and 410 social workers located in a variety of human services agencies in central Israel. Findings showed that although social workers and service users expressed similar levels of agreement with regard to motivational and psychological attributions, service users attributed more importance to social-structural causes and to fatalistic causes compared with social workers. Attributions of poverty were associated with economic status among the service users but not among the social workers. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Projected sustainability of innovative social programs.

This study is an exploratory examination of the projected sustainability of more than 100 projects funded by the Australian government. Using data collected by the body that evaluated the projects and data from a government database, it examines the predictors of various forms of sustainability. Findings show that some two thirds of the project leaders who expected their programs to continue after the expiration of the initial funding expected them to continue with the same activities and target population; almost half envisioned them diversifying to new activities, target groups, or locations. Auspice organization involvement increased the expectation that the project would be continued, project effectiveness decreased that expectation, and diversity of initial funding became less important as other sources of support and sustainability were taken into consideration.