Examining Ethnic Disparities in Digital Healthcare Services Utilization: Insights from Israel.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine ethnic disparities in the utilization of digital healthcare services (DHS) in Israel and explore the characteristics and factors influencing DHS use among the Arab minority and Jewish majority populations.

Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was employed to collect data from 606 Israeli participants, 445 Jews, and 161 Arabs. Participants completed a digital questionnaire that assessed DHS utilization, digital health literacy, attitudes towards DHS, and demographic variables.

Service Climate and Nurses' Collaboration with Families of Older Patients in the Care Process during Hospitalization.

This study focuses on the concrete role of the presence of a ward's service climate in cultivating nurses' collaboration with family members. Accordingly, this study examined the moderating role of the service climate in the link between nurses' attitudes toward the family and their collaboration with family members in the care process. This is the second article of a series of studies we conducted among health staff in Israeli public hospitals.

Factors Predicting Older Patients' Family Involvement by Nursing Staff in Hospitals: The View of Hospital Nurses in Israel.

According to the family-centered approach, the involvement of family in the care of hospitalized older patients is a crucial element of quality care. Active involvement of family in care by the nursing staff depends on different factors, including attitudes towards the importance of family in the care and perception of the interactions with the family. This study aims to identify the factors predicting staff behavior of involving the family in the care process.

Young help-seeker profiles in Israel: The case of the first Israeli headspace centre.

Aim: To describe clinical and demographic characteristics of youths who seek help at the first Headspace centre in Israel and their families.

Methods: A sample of 291 (65%) of the youths (12- to 25-year-olds) who applied to Headspace between March 2016 and June 2018 completed an assessment, including reasons for referral and clinical status; the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, evaluating psychological distress; and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, measuring emotional and behavioural difficulties. Their families reported burden of care via the Burden Assessment Scale.

Stress and perceived discrimination among the Arab population in Israel: the mediation role of the perceived COVID-19 threat and trust in the healthcare system.

During pandemics, minorities may experience high stress levels, which could harm their mental and physical health. However, to the best of our knowledge, this has not been examined among minorities in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study, therefore, explores stress among the Arab minority in Israel during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, and its association with the population's perceived COVID-19 threat, trust in the healthcare system, adherence to preventative guidelines, and perceived discrimination.

Implementation of NAVIGATE for first episode psychosis in Israel: Clients' characteristics, program utilization and ratings of change.

Objective: NAVIGATE is a comprehensive treatment program for first episode psychosis developed and implemented in the US that has been found to be effective. The purpose of the present study was to describe the first initiative of NAVIGATE's implementation outside the US, and to present data collected in Israel from the first two clinics focusing on NAVIGATE clients' characteristics, components utilization and retrospective clinician ratings of change.

Methods: Administrative data for 61 NAVIGATE clients in Israel and retrospective ratings of NAVIGATE clinicians were analysed.

Impact of a Culturally Adapted Version of Illness Management and Recovery on Israeli Arabs With Serious Mental Illness.

Objective: In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the need for cultural adaptation of evidence-based practices, which is essential for successful implementation in diverse cultural contexts. This study investigated the impact of a culturally adapted version of Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), an evidence-based practice developed in the United States, on Israeli Arabs with serious mental illness.

Methods: Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared the outcomes of 86 people who completed the culturally adapted IMR version with outcomes from a matched control group (N=64) who received treatment as usual.

Reprogenetics, reproductive risks and cultural awareness: what may we learn from Israeli and Croatian medical students?

Background: Past studies emphasized the possible cultural influence on attitudes regarding reprogenetics and reproductive risks among medical students who are taken to be "future physicians." These studies were crafted in order to enhance the knowledge and expand the boundaries of cultural competence. Yet such studies were focused on MS from relatively marginalized cultures, namely either from non-Western developing countries or minority groups in developed countries.

Randomized Controlled Trial of Adjunctive Social Cognition and Interaction Training, Adjunctive Therapeutic Alliance Focused Therapy, and Treatment As Usual Among Persons With Serious Mental Illness.

As one of the areas of greatest concern for people with serious mental illness (SMI) are unmet social needs, psychosocial interventions have been developed to address them. The current study utilized a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) versus a therapeutic alliance focused theraphy (TAFT) versus a treatment-as-usual (TAU) control group on social functioning and quality of life as primary outcomes and social cognition variables as secondary outcomes. Sixty-three persons between the ages of 24 and 69 years with SMI (41 men and 22 women), completers of the trial (23 in SCIT, 20 in TAFT, and 20 in TAU), were assessed at baseline, completion, and at a 3-month follow-up with measurements assessing social cognition (The Facial Emotion Identification Task, The Faux pas test, The Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire) social functioning, (The Social Skills Performance Assessment, The Wisconsin Social Quality of Life Scale), and therapeutic alliance (adapted version for group of system for observing family therapy alliance).

The use of the social skills performance assessment (SSPA) among persons with serious mental illness: psychometric assessment and network analysis.

Challenges in social functioning are a major obstacle in the recovery process of persons with serious mental illness. Majority of social functioning measures use self-report assessments. To validate the use of a performance based measure and examine a network analysis that explores the centrality of items.

Hospital Nurses in Comparison to Community Nurses: Motivation, Empathy, and the Mediating Role of Burnout.

Background: Hospital nurses' experience of their profession differs from that of community clinic nurses due to different working conditions and settings.

Purpose: To compare hospital nurses and community clinic nurses as to the mediating role of burnout on motivation and empathy.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 457 nurses completed four questionnaires: Demographic, Motivation Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire.

Neuro-cognition and social cognition elements of social functioning and social quality of life.

Previous studies have shown that deficits in social cognition mediate the association between neuro-cognition and functional outcome. Based on these findings, the current study presents an examination of the mediating role of social cognition and includes two different outcomes: social functioning assessed by objective observer and social quality of life assessed by subjective self-report. Instruments measuring different aspects of social cognition, cognitive ability, social functioning and social quality of life were administered to 131 participants who had a diagnosis of a serious mental illness.

Correlates of concealment behavior among couples coping with cancer: Actor partner model.

Objectives: Contextual self-concealment in the psychooncology literature has been found to be associated with elevated distress. The current study aimed to understand the dyadic relationships of an individual's perception of spousal support and dispositional perspective-taking with own and partner's levels of self-concealment behavior, among couples coping with cancer.

Methods: A subsample of 61 heterosexual couples coping with cancer was taken from a large-scale cross-sectional study.

Different Roads Lead to Rome: Exploring Patterns of Change among Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT) Participants.

Background: Narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy (NECT) is aimed at decreasing self-stigma and promoting recovery. The current study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the process and mechanisms by which NECT affects self-stigma and recovery.

Method: Sixty-two participants with serious mental illness (SMI) and enrolled in NECT completed questionnaires assessing self-clarity, recovery, self-stigma, and hope before and after the intervention, and the two latter questionnaires also after completing two defined parts of the intervention.

Hide and "sick": Self-concealment, shame and distress in the setting of psycho-oncology.

Unlabelled: ABSTRACTObjective:Both trait and contextual self-concealment, as well as shame- and guilt-proneness, have previously been found to be associated with psychological distress. However, findings regarding the associations between these variables among patients with cancer and among the spouses of patients with cancer are limited. The aim of the current study was therefore to investigate the relationship between shame-proneness and psychological distress (anxiety and depression) by examining the mediating role of both trait and contextual self-concealment among patients with cancer and among the spouses of patients with cancer.

Self-concealment among couples who cope with chronic illness: development and preliminary validation of the Couples Illness Self-Concealment (CISC) questionnaire.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop and assess the psychometric characteristics of a new brief self-report measure, which evaluates self-concealment behavior in the context of couples coping with chronic illness.

Methods: The Couples Illness Self-Concealment (CISC) scale was developed, emphasizing the active process involved in self-concealment. It was then tested among 56 cancer patients and partners of cancer patients.

Attitudes Toward Autism Spectrum Disorders Among Students of Allied Health Professions.

The prevalence of autism has increased dramatically. The objectives of this study were to explore attitudes toward prenatal diagnosis to detect autism prenatally and avoid having an affected child and to understand social acceptability of these disorders among students of allied health professions. In this study, college students of nursing and health systems management answered a structured self-report questionnaire (n = 305).

Self-clarity and different clusters of insight and self-stigma in mental illness.

The current study explored the self-experience of persons with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) by investigating the associations between different insight and self-stigma clusters, self-clarity, hope, recovery, and functioning. One hundred seven persons diagnosed with a SMI were administered six scales: self-concept clarity, self-stigma, insight into the illness, hope, recovery, and functioning. Correlations and cluster analyses were performed.

Reprogenetics, Genetic Tools and Reproductive Risk: Attitudes and Understanding Among Ethnic Groups in Israel.

The present study investigated a possible relationship between the attitudes toward genetic technologies and the understanding of genetics, reproduction, and reproductive risk among Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. The study included 203 respondents, who answered a structured self-report questionnaire. They were recruited using a snowball method, which increased the participation of Israeli Arabs in the sample, although the sample was not representative of the Israeli population as a whole (there were more Arabs and fewer men).

Metacognitive and social cognition approaches to understanding the impact of schizophrenia on social quality of life.

While some studies view metacognition and social cognition as representing the same phenomenon, others suggest that they represent distinctive sets of abilities that are related to different outcomes. The current study used a cross-sectional design that includes samples of persons with schizophrenia (N=39) and healthy individuals (N=60) to further explore the distinction between social cognition and metacognition and their associations with social quality of life. The Face Emotion Identification Task (FEIT), Faux-Pas Task, Indiana Psychiatric Illness Interview (IPII), Metacognition Assessment Scale - Abbreviated (MAS-A), and Social Quality of Life Scale were administrated to all participants.

Investigating the anatomy of the helping relationship in the context of psychiatric rehabilitation: the relation between working alliance, providers' recovery competencies and personal recovery.

Professional helping relationships established with mental health consumers are vital in mental health recovery processes. However, little is known about how the constructs of alliance building and providers' recovery promoting strategies relate to each other and play a role in supporting recovery. To this end, we examined associations between consumer-reported working alliance, perceived providers' recovery competencies, and personal recovery.

Assisted reproduction policies in Israel: a retrospective analysis of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.

Objective: To analyze whether the results and effectiveness of the open-ended treatment with IVF in Israel justifies the policy of limitless nondonor IVF rounds.

Design: The research sample included 535 patients. The files of these patients were reviewed; data were extracted into a questionnaire, transferred into digital files, and analyzed with SPSS.

Social cognition and interaction training: preliminary results of an RCT in a community setting in Israel.

Objective: Social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) has shown promise in improving consumers' social cognition and functioning, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This randomized controlled trial examined the effectiveness of SCIT among persons with serious mental illness living in community settings in Israel.

Methods: Fifty-five participants in social-mentoring services were assigned randomly to SCIT with social mentoring or to social mentoring only.

Between self-clarity and recovery in schizophrenia: reducing the self-stigma and finding meaning.

Although there are extensive theoretical reviews regarding the self-experience among persons with schizophrenia, there is limited research that addresses the implications of self-clarity on the recovery of persons with schizophrenia while exploring the role of possible mediators within this process. Accordingly, the current study explored the relationship between self-clarity and recovery while examining the possible mediating role of self-stigma and sense of meaning in life. 80 persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were administered four scales: self-concept clarity, self-stigma, meaning in life, and recovery.