Bringing older adults into the classroom: the sharing community model.

This article describes an innovative model for teaching gerontological social work that has been introduced into the social work methods curriculum in the Department of Social Work at a college in northern Israel. The basic concept of the model is to create an alternative learning environment by including older persons as full participants in the classroom. As experts on old age, they provide social work students with a hands-on learning experience intended to facilitate their understanding of aging. The changing needs of this growing population place a complex and pressing burden on the social systems that provide services to older adults, and on the families that care for them. To meet these needs, it is predicted that there will be a substantial increase in the demand for social workers in the field of gerontology. At present, there is a shortage of social workers who wish to work with this population as a result of negative perceptions and stereotypes relating to old age. This calls for a different approach to teaching gerontological social work, one that will adapt the study of aging to today's older population while addressing the misconceptions and anxieties of social work students.

Holocaust survivors: three waves of resilience research.

Three waves of resilience research have resulted in resilience-enhancing educational and therapeutic interventions. In the first wave of inquiry, researchers explored the traits and environmental characteristics that enabled people to overcome adversity. In the second wave, researchers investigated the processes related to stress and coping. In the third wave, studies examined how people grow and are transformed following adverse events, often leading to self-actualize, client creativity and spirituality. In this article the authors examined data from a study, "Forgiveness, Resiliency, and Survivorship among Holocaust Survivors" funded by the John Templeton Foundation ( Greene, Armour, Hantman, Graham, & Sharabi, 2010 ). About 65% of the survivors scored on the high side for resilience traits. Of the survivors, 78% engaged in processes considered resilient and felt they were transcendent or had engaged in behaviors that help them grow and change over the years since the Holocaust, including leaving a legacy and contributing to the community.

Elderly people coping with the aftermath of war: resilience versus vulnerability.

OBJECTIVES: The present study compares coping of elderly people and two younger groups 1 year after a war. Coping was determined by stress symptoms and posttraumatic recovery and two levels of resiliency. DESIGN AND SETTING: Thirty-six streets (covering most of the city streets) were sampled randomly from the map of Kiryat Shemona (a town next to the Lebanese border) about a year after the end of the Second Lebanon War. PARTICIPANTS: The sample constituted 870 adult residents of the town. Participants were divided into three age groups: elderly (age 65 years and older, N = 108), adults (age 46-64 years, N = 252) and young adults (age 20-45 years, N = 462). MEASUREMENTS: 1) Stress symptoms measured by short version of Brief Symptom Inventory; 2) Individual resilience measured by Sense of Coherence Inventory; 3) Posttraumatic Recovery Inventory (PTR); and 4) Public Resilience Scale (included a scale for community and national resilience). RESULTS: The results indicated 1) The elderly group reported significantly higher levels of stress symptoms and lower levels of PTR; 2) Females in the three age groups reported higher levels of stress symptoms and lower levels of PTR and individual resilience than males; 3) Individual and public resilience negatively predicted stress symptoms and positively predicted posttraumatic recovery across three age groups; and 4) Public resilience has a differential effect on stress symptoms in each of the three age groups but not on PTR. CONCLUSION: Results question the division of older people into a vulnerable or inoculated group, indicating that the participants responded concurrently in a more vulnerable and a more resilient manner. Older people were characterized by higher levels of postwar stress symptoms, as well as a higher sense of coherence.

Forgiveness in late life.

This study expands the understanding of forgiveness among a sample of older adults in Israel by exploring the contributory roles of meaning in life; stressful life events; and socio economic variables such as gender, age, and religiosity as well as time and agent of hurt. A convenience sample of 225 older adults in Israel responded to the Enright Forgiveness Inventory and the Reker Meaning in Life Scale. An additional questionnaire contained demographic and other background information, including a list of traumatic life events. The results of our study support our assumption that meaning in life correlates with forgiveness on all its dimensions. Furthermore, women tend to forgive more than men, and there is a tendency to forgive family members more readily than nonfamily members, and people who are still alive, as opposed to those who have passed away.

Sense of coherence and socio-demographic characteristics predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms and recovery in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War.

This study investigated the role of sense of coherence (SOC) as a mediator between demographic attributes of individuals (gender, age, economic situation, and exposure to traumatic events during the war) and two war outcomes (postwar stress symptoms and perceived posttraumatic recovery). The participants were 870 adults (ages ranged between 20 and 85), who were affected by the Second Lebanon War and were evacuated from their home town. They were administered the research questionnaire approximately one year after this war. Path analysis indicated the following: gender, age, economic situation, and exposure were significantly associated with level of symptoms as well as perceived recovery. However, three of these connections (age, economic, and exposure) were partially mediated by SOC which was linked with lower levels of stress symptoms and higher levels of perceived posttraumatic recovery. Unlike our hypothesis, exposure by age interaction was not significantly associated with SOC and the two war outcomes. Results supported the hypotheses that SOC mediates between demographic characteristics and negative (symptoms) as well as positive (perceived recovery) war outcomes.

Postwar winners and losers in the long run: determinants of war related stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth.

The study focuses on the long-term impact of war on adolescents (N = 821) and adults (N = 870) living in a war afflicted Israeli community a year after the war. Results indicate the following: (a) stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG) correlate negatively with each other. (b) Age was positively associated with stress symptoms and negatively with PTG. (c) Economic condition predicted stress symptoms as well as PTG of adults better than exposure to traumatic events, whereas for school students the best predictor of stress symptoms was exposure to traumatic events while the best predictor of PTG was age of participants.

Recurrent trauma: Holocaust survivors cope with aging and cancer.

BACKGROUND: The current study aims to determine whether elderly Holocaust survivors are affected differently from non-survivors by the adversity of aging and cancer. METHOD: Holocaust survivors and non-survivors suffering from cancer, were assessed tapping PTSD, psychiatric symptomatology, psychosocial adjustment to illness and coping with the aftermath of the Holocaust. RESULTS: Findings indicate a significant difference between survivors and non-survivors in post-traumatic symptoms and their intensity, survivors endorsing significantly more PTSD symptoms. Survivors were classified into 3 sub-groups, namely "Victims," "Fighters," and "Those who made it". "Victims" reported the highest percentage of persons who met PTSD, psychiatric symptomatology and difficulty coping with the problems of old age. CONCLUSIONS: The diversity of responses points to heterogeneity of long-term adaptation and adjustment among Holocaust survivors and similar response to subsequent adversity.

Long-term coping of Holocaust survivors: a typology.

BACKGROUND: The nature of long-range impairment resulting from exposure to the atrocities of the Holocaust has been studied extensively. Some survivors reported a high level of psychological distress, while others, who were exposed to similar experiences, reported little, if any, symptoms. The present study aimed to validate Danieli's (1-3) typology of differentiated patterns of long-term coping and adaptation among Holocaust survivors in an Israeli sample. METHOD: A sample of 150 Holocaust survivors participated in this study. Data were gathered as part of a larger study that assessed long-term coping styles of elderly Holocaust survivors when confronted with another life-threatening event, namely cancer. RESULTS: The results point to the heterogeneous coping styles of Holocaust survivors and enable the formulation of a Survivor's Typology describing three types of adaptation: The "Victim," the "Fighter" and "Those Who Made It." The "Victim" type was found to be the most vulnerable. The "Fighter" and "Those Who Made It" types, who comprised over 80% of the sample, reported successful adaptation in the aftermath of the Holocaust.