Predicting satisfaction with vocational status among people with serious mental illness in vocational services: the role of perceived skills and support.

Background: This study aimed to explore the role of perceived skills and support in satisfaction with vocational status to better address the vocational needs and recovery goals of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). It focuses on three service types: individual placement and support (IPS), sheltered workshops, and vocational support centers.

Method: The study is a cross-sectional analysis of the nationwide Israeli PR-PROM project data.

A prospective ecological momentary assessment study of an ayahuasca retreat: exploring the salutary impact of acute psychedelic experiences on subacute affect and mindfulness skills in daily life.

Rationale: To examine the acute effects of ayahuasca use and their relationship to sub-acute changes in affect and mindfulness in a non-clinical sample, addressing the need for a better understanding of ayahuasca's immediate and short-term impacts as interest in its use grows.

Objectives: Using prospective ecological assessment, this study investigates how ayahuasca used at a 4-day retreat affects positive/negative affect and mindfulness skills in daily living compared to pre-retreat. Additionally, we explore acute psychedelic experiences during the ayahuasca retreat, assessed retrospectively 1-2 days post-retreat, as potential mechanisms for theorized effects in daily living post-retreat.

The unfolding of psychological distress following the October 7 attack on Israel: The impact of exposure, gender, and event centrality.

Background: Mass disasters, whether natural or human-made, pose significant public health challenges, with some individuals demonstrating resilience, whereas others experience persistent emotional distress that may meet diagnostic criteria for mental health disorders. We explored key risk factors for distress following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, focusing on trauma exposure, gender, and event centrality.

Method: A longitudinal study design was used, assessing posttraumatic distress (PTSD), depression, generalized anxiety, event centrality, and functioning at approximately three (T1; n=858) and seven (T2, n=509) months post-attack.

Recovery at 30: Integrating Lived Experience Expertise into Mental Health Research in Israel.

A major component of recovery is the inclusion of lived experience to transform the culture of Mental Health (MH) services. In Israel lived experience has been increasingly integrated into services through peer roles. However, lived experience knowledge and expertise has not been sufficiently nor systematically integrated into the design of mental health research.

Broadening understanding of individual choices about psychiatric medication use in psychiatric rehabilitation.

Most individuals in recovery are likely to attempt discontinuing their prescribed medication at least once. The collection of articles in this special issue uses research with quantitative and qualitative methods, reviews of the literature, conceptualization of theory, and first-person accounts from various perspectives to begin to shift the field of psychiatric rehabilitation from a narrow focus on symptom reduction and a fear-driven emphasis on medication adherence to a new perspective in which dilemmas and strong feelings about medication use are commonplace. We issue a call to action for training psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners, who often have the most direct and frequent interactions with people in recovery, to explore their clients' experiences with using medication and its impact on a range of life domains.

Mood Disorder Public Stigma in Jewish Communities in the United States.

This study employed an experimental vignette design in Jewish communities in the United States (n = 243) to investigate whether public stigma toward target individuals with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder presenting with either mania or depression was associated with their gender and symptomatology. The Mental Illness Stigma Scale (Day et al., in J Appl Soc Psychol 37(10):2191-2219, 2007) was used to measure the following dimensions of public stigma: (a) anxiety; (b) relationship disruption; (c) hygiene; (d) visibility; (e) treatability; (f) professional efficacy; and (g) recovery.

The relationship between community-based psychiatric rehabilitation pathways and re-hospitalization trajectories: A three-decade follow-up.

Psychiatric rehabilitation is essential for the recovery of individuals with schizophrenia. However, re-hospitalization is sometimes inevitable. This study examined the association between varied community psychiatric rehabilitation services (PRS) and long-term re-hospitalization parameters.

"After the thrill is gone": The role of psychotherapy in coping with romantic breakups.

To investigate the perceptions of ex-romantic partners regarding the extent to which and ways in which psychotherapy facilitates coping with the consequences of the dissolution of past relationships, a multipart survey (Representations of Past Significant Others) that included Likert-type, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions about the ways in which individuals remember a past significant relationship and the ways in which they have moved toward closure from that relationship was disseminated via social media and networking. An attachment status measure (Experience in Close Relationship Scale-Short Form) was also administered. A total of 1,846 respondents, mean age 30.

Digital Terror: Its Striking Impact on Public Mental Health.

Digital terror refers to the use of digital technology to disseminate graphic images of acts of violence to frighten the public. On October 7, 2023, militants of the Palestinian organization Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel and used digital terror to magnify their acts. Although the purposeful spreading of terror via digital means is not new, the Hamas attack was significant for the scope, immediacy, and widespread dissemination of its digital content.

Comparing outcomes of psychiatric rehabilitation between ethnic-religious groups in Israel.

Psychiatric rehabilitation for people with severe mental illness (SMI) has many documented benefits, but less is known about cultural related aspects. To date, no comparison of psychiatric rehabilitation outcomes between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs has been carried out. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to compare the outcome measures of Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews consuming psychiatric rehabilitation services.

Positive Reframing of Psychosis Risk Is Seen as More Beneficial and Less Harmful Than Negative Framing by Clinicians: An Experimental Videotaped Simulated Feedback Study.

Background And Hypothesis: Recent studies show that, despite providing some relief, feedback about being at risk for psychosis often triggers negative emotional reactions. Inspired by Tversky and Kahneman's (1981) work on the framing effect and medical framings that favors positive framing like "life-threatening" over "high-risk for death," this study tested the hypothesis that positive reframing of psychosis risk (PR) could alleviate these concerns. To establish the justifiability and feasibility of testing this hypothesis with patients and their families, the study first sought to test whether mental health professionals (MHPs) view positive framing as superior to present state-of-the-art approaches.

Blended care in psychosis - A systematic review.

Blended-care, a psychosocial intervention combining traditional, face-to-face therapy with digital mental health tools, has shown potential for improving therapeutic processes, fostering patient engagement, and augmenting clinical outcomes. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the development and effectiveness of blended-care interventions tailored for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders or other conditions with psychotic features. Our search strategy spanned three electronic databases (PsycINFO, Web of Science, and PubMed) in accordance with the reporting guidelines outlined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Promoting Positive Self-Identity of Youths With Mental Disorders: Collaboration Between Academia and a Ministry of Education.

Inclusive schools reflect the dominant approach to education, yet many youths with mental disorders still attend special education schools. Although special education schools address educational, social, and developmental needs, they may increase students' self-stigma and hinder positive identity formation. Israel's Ministry of Education and an academic community mental health department partnered to address this challenge by developing a manual-based intervention for special education school settings.

Risks for re-hospitalization of persons with severe mental illness living in rehabilitation care settings.

Background: The high rates of psychiatric re-hospitalizations (also termed "revolving door") presents a "wicked problem" which requires a systematic and holistic approach to its resolution. Israel's mental-health rehabilitation law provides a comprehensive set of services intended to support the ability of persons with severe mental illness to rely on community rather than in-patient facilities for their ongoing care needs. Guided by the Health Behavior Model, we examined the relationship between psychiatric re-hospitalizations and the three Health Behavior Model factors (predisposing factor: socio-demographic characteristics and health beliefs; enabling factor: personal and social/vocational relationships facilitated by rehabilitation interventions and services; and need factor: outcomes including symptoms, and mental health and functional status) among persons with severe mental illness receiving rehabilitation services.

Promoting Reflection on the Process of Recovery: Unique Contributions from Literature and the Humanities for Practitioner.

Recovery from serious mental illness requires persons to make their own meaning and deal with evolving challenges and possibilities. Psychiatric rehabilitation thus must offer more than manualized curricula that address symptoms and skills. We suggest that exposure to the humanities and in particular literature may offer practitioners unique avenues for developing interventions that are sensitive to the processes that enable meaning to be made.

Unique contributions from the arts on the process and practice of psychiatric rehabilitation.

This article presents an introduction to the special issue of This special issue explores what exposure to various forms of art can add to the understanding of human nature, including mental health, and in particular, efforts and ways to advance psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery. While psychiatric rehabilitation is increasingly positioned as a scientific enterprise, we ask whether this field can benefit from lessons learned from the arts. More specifically, the authors explore how the arts can enhance the field of psychiatric rehabilitation by helping those in this field to understand, through new perspectives, the experiences of people with mental health issues.

Facilitators and barriers in the implementation of a culturally adapted Arabic version of Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) among Palestinian Arabs in Israel.

The Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) program has been implemented in several countries including Israel. This study examines, from the perspective of Arab practitioners, facilitators and barriers in the implementation of a culturally-adapted version of the IMR intervention among Arabs with serious mental illness in Israel. Fourteen Arab practitioners who had delivered the culturally adapted IMR were interviewed.

Meaning, recovery, and psychotherapy in light of the art of jazz.

Objective: Psychotherapy as a practice in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation is increasingly seen as a means to promote recovery from serious mental illness (SMI). While mostly informed by mental health theory and research, art might offer profound and enduring insights to inform psychotherapy with people with SMI. In this article, we argue that jazz, a form of art which entails both structure and improvising, may enrich and broaden clinicians' abilities to facilitate meaning-making with clients to promote recovery.

Attitudes toward and patterns of medication use among people with serious mental illness: There's more than meets the eye.

Background And Aim: There are growing concerns about the long-term effects of psychiatric medication after a major psychiatric crisis. Recent evidence shows a diverse impact of long-term use on various outcome domains, which may help explain why non-adherence is so common. In the current study we explored the subjective perceptions of factors that impact both attitudes toward and patterns of use of medication among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI).

Do symptoms moderate the association between participation and executive functions outcomes among people with schizophrenia?

Background: Literature explains participation limitations among people with schizophrenia through the context of metacognitive limitations, specifically in symptoms and in executive functions (EF). Research has shown mixed results regarding associations between symptoms and participation, reporting association with negative symptoms, positive symptoms, or only metacognitive limitations. The aim of this study was to deepen understanding of the symptoms' impact on the association between participation and executive function among people with schizophrenia.

Mental Health Public Stigma in US Jewish Communities.

Stigma is a multifaceted barrier for individuals living with mental illness, contributing to negative stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, and is underinvestigated in minority ethnic groups. This study examines the stigma within the US Jewish communities, specifically the following: a) differences in public stigma dimensions based on mental illness ( e.g.

A longitudinal study of headspace youth oriented mental health service satisfaction, service utilization and clinical characteristics.

Aim: This study examined satisfaction with accessibility, staff attitudes, personal outcomes service components of youth-oriented mental health service, Headspace, and those components' associations with psychological distress and functional status at intake, service utilization patterns and demographic characteristics at middle and end of treatment.

Methods: Data were collected between March 2016 and June 2018 from 112 participants (12-25 years) who consented and completed at least seven sessions at the Headspace youth integrated-care centre in Israel using the centre's registries and the Youth Service Satisfaction Scale.

Results: Headspace participants attended an average of 12 sessions (SD = 3.