Identity, culture, and feminism: Golda Meir - Israel's prime minister (1969-1974).

Like most historical leaders, Israel's fourth prime minister, Golda Meir, is a controversial figure. Some consider her the worst prime minister in Israel's history, who was responsible for Israel's lack of preparedness for the Yom Kippur War, and others perceive her to be the only 'man' who stood in the way of Arabs' countries victory over Israel. Some view her to be conservative, not brilliant, dogmatic, masculine, and racist, and some others, as a simple, modest, warm, and empathetic woman. The authors bridge between these two conflicting views by employing theories of identity, culture, and gender role bias to investigate how Golda Meir's early age trauma caused by pogroms against Jews, cultural transition between Russia, the USA, and Mandatory Palestine, and serving as a powerful woman leader in an all-men political system, influenced her personal and political behaviour and her public image.

Nurses, Clergy, Chaplains, Parkinson's Disease, Workplace Religiosity, Women's Health and Family Issues.

This issue of JORH explores a broad range of topics looking at the professions of nursing, clergy and chaplains. This issue also concludes the series on Parkinson's disease (Part 2), and for the first time, JORH presents a collation of articles relating to workplace religiosity. Finally, this issue revisits the topics of women's health and family issues in relation to religiosity and spirituality.

The Development and Feasibility of a Novel Group Intervention to Support Helping Professionals in Metabolizing Suffering and Engaging Strengths: The CHRYSALIS Program.

This feasibility study reports on the development and initial evaluation of a novel online intervention for helping professionals (HPs; i.e. mental health professionals, chaplains, clergy) designed to (a) address occupational hazards, such as burnout and vicarious traumatization, and (b) promote well-being and flourishing at work. In contrast with competency and self-care focused models, the CHRYSALIS (Catalyzing Helping Professionals' Resilience, VitalitY, Spirituality, Authentic Living, and Inner Strength) intervention centers the self of the provider, explores cultural and spiritual contexts, and attends to systemic challenges. As part of a larger randomized controlled trial evaluating two program formats, the group format entails eight online sessions exploring strengths that can promote well-being, including processing, relational, vitalizing, orienting, and agentic capacities. To pilot test this framework and establish proof of concept, this study analyzed data from 41 HPs who had been randomly assigned to the group condition and completed surveys at four time points. Quantitative results indicated significant reductions in vicarious traumatization and burnout as well as increased well-being and meaning in work. Qualitative results suggest the intervention fostered relational support, cultivated new perspectives, and increased engagement with strengths, positively impacting participants' work and navigation of caregiving systems. Feedback about cohesion and group dynamic challenges in an online format informed further program development. This study provides initial support for the feasibility and efficacy of the group format of the CHRYSALIS intervention as a creative means to address HPs' risk for occupational hazards and promote holistic formation in a relational context.

The University Chaplain: An Often Unrecognised Resource in Suicide Prevention-Initial Qualitative Results from Exploratory Research into the Roles of University Chaplains at One Australian University.

University chaplains are often unrecognised as resources in suicide prevention. This exploratory article highlights the valuable contributions university chaplains at one Australian university make to suicide prevention. Three overarching themes related to the contributions of university chaplains to suicide prevention were generated: (1) person-centred care; (2) the role of university chaplains in suicide prevention; and (3) professional development. Of particular note is that university chaplains actively contribute to all three phases of the suicide prevention framework: prevention, intervention, and postvention.

"Trust in God, but tie your donkey": Holy water priest healers' views on collaboration with biomedical mental health services in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This exploratory qualitative study examines holy water priest healers' explanatory models and general treatment approaches toward mental illness, and their views and reflections on a collaborative project between them and biomedical practitioners. The study took place at two holy water treatment sites in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Twelve semi-structured interviews with holy water priest healers found eight notable themes: they held multiple explanatory models of illness, dominated by religious and spiritual understanding; they emphasized spiritual healing and empathic understanding in treatment, and also embraced biomedicine as part of an eclectic healing model; they perceived biomedical practitioners' humility and respect as key to their positive views on the collaboration; they valued recognition of their current role and contribution in providing mental healthcare; they recognized and appreciated the biomedical clinic's effectiveness in treating violent and aggressive patients; they endorsed the collaboration and helped to overcome patient and family reluctance to the use of biomedicine; they lamented the lack of spiritual healing in biomedical treatment; and they had a number of dissatisfactions and concerns, particularly the one-way referral from religious healers to the biomedical clinic. The study results show diversity in the religious healers' etiological understanding, treatment approaches and generally positive attitude and views on the collaboration. We present insights and explorations of factors affecting this rare, but much needed collaboration between traditional healers and biomedical services, and potential ways to improve it are discussed.

Stability and shifts in the combined positive and negative mental health of clergy: A longitudinal latent class and latent transition analysis study of united methodist pastors before and after the onset of COVID-19.

COVID-19 and its associated restrictions presented unprecedented challenges for those in the helping professions. In this study, we seek to understand how the mental health of those who belong to one specific helping profession - clergy - changed in the context of COVID-19. Using longitudinal data of a sample of United Methodist pastors from the North Carolina Clergy Health Initiative, we conduct both cross-sectional and person-centered analyses to investigate how the overall mental health of this occupational group changed, as well as how different subgroups of clergy fared within the context of the pandemic, depending on their well-being prior to the onset of COVID-19. We found that the mental health of pastors suffered within the context of the pandemic, but that individual changes in mental health differed based on what the combined positive and negative mental health patterns of clergy were prior to the pandemic, for which we used latent class analysis to identify as Flourishing, Distressed, Languishing, or Burdened but Fulfilled. Of these subgroups, having Flourishing pre-pandemic status was protective of mental health following the onset of COVID-19, whereas the other three subgroups' mental health statuses worsened. This study is the one of the first longitudinal studies of helping professionals which has tracked changes in mental health before and after the onset of COVID-19. Our findings demonstrate the utility of considering positive and negative mental health indicators together, and they point to certain groups that can be targeted with well-being resources during future periods of acute or abnormal stress.

Engaging the AQ10 to Predict Professional Burnout or Poor Work-Related Psychological Wellbeing Among Anglican Clergy in Wales.

The ten-item Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) is a self-report instrument originally designed to identify referrals for professional diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Recent studies suggest that this instrument may also be tapping more generalised affective disorders. Working with this interpretation, this study examines the predictive power of the AQ10 to account for additional variance, after personal and personality factors have been taken into account, on the two scales of the Francis Burnout Inventory. Data provided by 220 Anglican clergy serving in Wales demonstrated that 8.6% of the participants recorded six or more red flags on the AQ10 (and so qualified for referral for specialist diagnostic assessment) and that higher scores on the AQ10 are associated with significantly lower levels of satisfaction in ministry and with significantly higher levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry. These data suggest that screening with the AQ10 may be helpful in identifying clergy vulnerable to professional burnout and to poor work-related psychological wellbeing, in addition to its primary purpose of screening for ASD.

Building a Community Partnership for the Development of Health Ministries Within the African American Community: The Triad Pastors Network.

African Americans continue to have worse health outcomes despite attempts to reduce health disparities. This is due, in part, to inadequate access to healthcare, but also to the health care and medical mistrust experienced by communities of color. Churches and worship centers have historically served as cultural centers of trusted resources for educational, financial, and health information within African American communities and a growing number of collaborations have developed between academic institutions and community/faith entities. Herein, we describe the infrastructure of a true and sustainable partnership developed with > 100 prominent faith leaders within the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina for the purpose of developing or expanding existing health ministries within houses of worship, to improve health literacy and overall health long-term. The Triad Pastors Network is an asset-based partnership between the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and faith leaders in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina that was created under the guiding principles of community engagement to improve health equity and decrease health disparities experienced by African American communities. A partnership in which co-equality and shared governance are the core of the framework provides an effective means of achieving health-related goals in a productive and efficient manner. Faith-based partnerships are reliable approaches for improving the health literacy needed to address health disparities and inequities in communities of color.

Exploring the Meanings of Posttraumatic Growth in Spanish Survivors of Clergy-Perpetrated Child Sexual Abuse: A Phenomenological Approach.

A healing and recovery perspective related to child sexual abuse (CSA) has gained attention in the past two decades, a concept that accurately refers to the process is posttraumatic growth (PTG). Scarce empirical research on PTG in clergy-perpetrated CSA survivors shows evidence of the presence of growth after the abusive experience and a tendency to create accounts of trauma as a way to heal. The general aim of the study is to explore the experiences and meanings of PTG as lived by survivors of clergy-perpetrated CSA. Seven clergy-perpetrated CSA survivors were interviewed with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted in person. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified three dominant themes in the participants' stories: (a) the hindering of PTG; (b) the meanings of PTG, and (c) the internal and contextual and facilitators of PTG. The present study brings new insights into the meanings of PTG, the close relationship between damage and growth, and the mechanisms (both internal and contextual) that are involved in healing from clergy-perpetrated CSA in Spanish culture.

"We Never Stop Singing": The Dynamics of the Mental and Physical Health of Czech Religious Pastors during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study explores the dynamics of coping strategies of Czech religious leaders during a peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. An interpretative phenomenological analysis reveals that mental health among pastors is closely linked to a need to maintain community and social contact, while physical health is related to limitations upon ritual elements. In all narratives, the lived experience of mental health in the form of prosocial behavior is significantly prioritized despite the possibility of spreading infection. The analysis also shows that maintaining the community is closely linked to risky behaviors, which positively affected group and individual well-being.

Military Perspectives on the Provision of Spiritual Care in the Australian Defence Force: A Cross-Sectional Study.

A module to explore perspectives on chaplaincy services was included in an online enterprise survey randomly distributed to members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during 2021. Up to eight questions were answered by 2783 active military personnel relating to their perception of chaplain activities and the impact of chaplaincy services. Of those military participants answering the question on religious status (n = 1116), a total of 71.6% (n = 799) of respondents identified as non-religious while 28.4% (n = 317) identified as holding a religious affiliation. Approximately 44.2% (n = 1230) of participants had sought support from a chaplain, of which 85.3% (n = 1049) found chaplaincy care to be satisfactory or very satisfactory. While the data suggest there is a lack of clarity around the multiple roles undertaken by chaplaincy, nevertheless respondents were just as likely to prefer chaplains for personal support (24.0%), as they were to seek help from non-chaplaincy personnel such as a non-ADF counsellor (23.2%), their workplace supervisor (23.1%) or a psychologist (21.8%). This evidence affirms that the spiritual care provided by military chaplaincy remains one of several preferred choices and thus a valued part of the holistic care provided by the ADF to support the health and wellbeing of its members.

"Genuine and fundamentally human": a qualitative study into Dutch humanist chaplains' conceptualizations of empathy.

Empathy has been highlighted as a key concept in chaplaincy care, but its meaning has hardly been explored in depth within this field. This study aims to help develop stronger conceptual clarity by investigating humanist chaplains' conceptualizations of empathy. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty humanist chaplains working in health care, military, and prisons. A qualitative design was employed to clarify which components and features constitute empathy in humanist chaplaincy care. Empathy emerges as a multidimensional concept that is "fundamentally human." Chaplains distinguish between true and pseudo empathy based on different features including authenticity and concern. This article provides a conceptual model that combines the different components and features of empathy in humanist chaplaincy care and the relationship between them in light of empathy's humanizing quality. It may be used for educational purposes and could function as a conceptual framework for future research efforts.

Healthcare chaplains' conflicting and ambivalent positions regarding meaning in life and worldview.

Western society is increasingly a spiritual society, but not so much a society that draws on clearly delineated religious or worldview pillars anymore. Within healthcare, there's a growing attention to the spiritual dimension of health and the collaborative spiritual care that is needed for person-centered care. This changing religious/worldview and healthcare landscape is influencing healthcare chaplaincy. In this case study in-depth interviews were conducted with a chaplaincy team within a large healthcare organization in The Netherlands. Dialogical Self Theory was used as the theoretical framework in the narrative analysis of these stories. This provided insights into how these chaplains negotiate their professional identity within a changing healthcare landscape. It is concluded that there are multiple and often contradictory and conflicting positions within and between chaplains and that it is a challenge for healthcare chaplains to integrate the "old" and "new" representations of chaplaincy.

"Reading" the room: healthcare chaplains' challenges, insights and variations in entering rooms and engaging with patients and families.

Recent research has described broad types of healthcare chaplains' activities, but many questions remain about how these professionals perform these tasks, whether variations occur, and if so, in what ways. Twenty-three chaplains were interviewed in-depth. Chaplains described engaging in highly dynamic processes, involving both verbal and non-verbal interactions. They face challenges and vary in ways of starting interactions, using verbal and non-verbal cues, and communicating through physical appearance. In these processes, when entering patients' rooms, they seek to "read the room," follow patients' leads, look for cues, match the energy/mood in the room, and adjust their body language appropriately, while maintaining open-ended stances. They face choices of what, if anything, to communicate through clothing (e.g., wearing clerical collars or crosses) and can confront additional challenges with members of groups different than their own, at times requiring further sensitivity. These data, the first to examine challenges chaplains confront entering patients' rooms and engaging in non-verbal communication, can enhance understandings of these issues, and help chaplains and other healthcare professionals provide more sensitive and astute context-based care. These findings thus have critical implications for education, practice, and research concerning chaplains and other providers.

How does the American public interact with chaplains? Evidence from a national survey.

How does the American public understand the term chaplain? What fraction interact with chaplains and in what settings? What is the content of those interactions and do care recipients find them valuable? We answer these questions with data from a nationally representative survey (N = 1096) conducted in March 2022 and interviews with a subset (N = 50) of survey recipients who interacted with chaplains. We find that people in the United States do not have a consistent understanding of the term chaplain. Based on our definition, at least 18% of Americans have interacted with a chaplain. Among those who interacted with a chaplain as defined in the survey, the majority did so through healthcare organizations. Care recipients include people who were ill and their visitors/caregivers. The most common types of support received were prayer, listening and comfort. Overall, survey respondents found chaplains to be moderately or very valuable.