Boosting Resilience: Photovoice as a Tool for Promoting Well-Being, Social Cohesion, and Empowerment Among the Older Adult During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This paper examines how older adults who participated in an online photovoice-based group intervention program reported their experience. In a qualitative-phenomenological study, in which 13 older-adult people participated, data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed through content analysis. The findings point to three central themes: a) Challenges-technical difficulties, difficulties in finding a subject for photography, investing time in photography, and an emotional-intellectual effort to put their experience into photography; b) Growth: New knowledge and skills-acquiring new knowledge, acquiring skills, experiencing skills regardless of age, and empowerment; c) Meaning-reflexivity, the ability to project feelings onto images, connection to the outside world, mindfulness, ability to choose, creativity, and critical consciousness. The findings share the way in which the use of creative visual engagement with photography contributed to coping with various challenges and enabled various gains within the process among the older-adult participants.

It's Not Just Me, It's Us, Together: The Embodied of the Wounded Healer in the Role of Sex Trade Survival Mentors-A Critical Mentoring Perspective.

Mentoring is one of the unique forms of rehabilitation used to engage with women in the sex trade. The role creates personal and professional challenges; one concerns the mentors themselves dealing with a past in the sex trade, embodying within it a sign of social disgrace. Echoing the concept of the "wounded healer," the present study examines how mentors who are sex trade survivors perceive their role in supporting the rehabilitation of women in the sex trade and the meanings that they give it. The research is based on a qualitative approach from a critical-feminist point of view. Eight female mentors and sex trade survivors, working in different settings, participated in the study. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Based on content analysis, the study points to four components of mentoring vis-à-vis the rehabilitation of women in the sex trade: (1) mutual identification and shared destiny; (2) corrective experience; (3) hope; and (4) saving lives. In addition, mentoring serves as a bridge for the mentors, eliciting opportunities for growth transforming out of their pain. The research findings are discussed in the context of the theoretical framework of critical mentoring, and how a relationship and a therapeutic alliance can turn mentoring into a critical healing practice, in relation to four principles: (1) equality; (2) critical empathy; (3) recognition; and (4) solidarity. The paper encourages the use of mentoring-based interventions in the process of rehabilitating women in the sex trade.

A qualitative study of equine-assisted therapy for Israeli military and police veterans with PTSD-impact on self-regulation, bonding and hope.

Equine-assisted therapy (EAT) is an increasingly popular form of treatment for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who, for one reason or another, find psychotherapy and other traditional treatment approaches unsuitable or unhelpful. However, the concomitant growth of research in the field is yet to engage with key factors relating to EAT; specifically, there are few studies considering the phenomenological perspective of patients, and the embodied knowledge deriving from the lived experience of PTSD patients who participated in EAT-based intervention programmes. Based on a qualitative-phenomenological study, interviews were conducted with 12 PTSD patients who had completed an EAT-based intervention programme. From these, three main themes characterising the meanings they gave to participation in an EAT-based treatment programme were identified: the ability to relax (self-regulation); establishing a relationship (bonding) and transformation and hope for the future. The findings of this study point to a process whereby participation in an EAT-based treatment programme facilitates the ability to cope with PTSD symptoms in a way that bridges the patient's emotional, social and spiritual-existential dimensions. The findings suggest that EAT can contribute to the healing process of veterans suffering from PTSD.

Photovoice as a creative coping tool with the COVID-19 crisis in practical training seminar for social work students.

The Coronavirus-19 crisis has led university professors, social workers, students and social service consumers to shift to online methods of communication and teaching. In this novel, shared reality, the present paper introduces a new initiative based on implemented photovoice methodology as a tool for documenting BSW students' professional daily lives. This tool was used at a practical training seminar for 16 third year students at the School of Social Work, Sapir Academic College.

Exposure to Family Violence in Childhood, Self-Efficacy, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Young Adulthood.

This study aimed to examine the relationship of exposure to family violence (i.e., experiencing parental physical violence [PH] and psychological aggression [PA] and witnessing interparental PH and PA) during childhood and adolescence with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during young adulthood. In addition, the mediating role of self-efficacy in this relationship was investigated. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 516 university and college students in Israel (90.7% female and 9.3% male; Mage = 24.9, SD = 2.7). The results revealed that experiencing parental violence and witnessing interparental violence during childhood and adolescence were associated with high levels of current PTSS. The results also indicate that experiencing parental violence was associated with lower levels of self-efficacy, whereas no such significant relationship was found between witnessing interparental violence and self-efficacy. Furthermore, a negative relationship was found between self-efficacy and PTSS. In addition, the results show a partial mediation effect of self-efficacy only on the relationship between experiencing parental violence and PTSS. The findings are interpreted in light of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. The strengths and limitations of the study as well as implications for future research are discussed.

The relationship between exposure to family violence in childhood and post-traumatic stress symptoms in young adulthood: The mediating role of social support.

BACKGROUND: Extensive research has examined the relationship between exposure to family violence and its long-term mental health effects. Social support has been found to moderate this relationship, but there is a dearth of research on its mediating role. OBJECTIVES: The article presents the results of a study on the relationship between witnessing interparental violence and experiencing parental violence during childhood and adolescence on the one hand, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during young adulthood on the other. In addition, the article presents results on the role of social support as a mediator in this relationship. METHOD, PARTICIPANTS, AND SETTING: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 516 Israeli university and college students (90.7% female, and 9.3% male; M age = 24.9, SD = 2.7) using a retrospective, self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: The results revealed that exposure to each pattern of family violence (i.e., witnessing interparental violence and experiencing parental violence) predicted higher levels of PTSS. Furthermore, social support was found to partially mediate the relationship between exposure to family violence during childhood and adolescence and current PTSS as well as its four symptoms, i.e., depression, sleep disturbance, dissociation, and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study highlight the important role of social support in the association between adversities experienced early in life and young adulthood outcomes. The findings are interpreted on the basis of Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll et al., 1990), which served as the conceptual framework for the study. The limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.