Patients' satisfaction with hospital health care: Identifying indicators for people with severe mental disorder.

Background: Patients' perception of psychiatric healthcare is a critical indicator in measuring service quality. The aim of the study was to determine patient's level of satisfaction with the quality of health care delivered at the inpatient departments, and to identify the service quality factors that were important to patients.

Method: The Satisfaction with Psychiatry Care Questionnaire-22 was administered to 125 consecutive inpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in a stable condition.

The demographic and morbidity characteristics of a population receiving food support in Israel.

Background: Food supply to poor populations is a big challenge, particularly in periods of economic stress and in an era of chronic diseases epidemics. In Israel more than 4000 poor families are currently receiving food support. Many of the food support products given to the family have low nutrient values, therefore not appropriately ensuring food security of the population.

Assessment of health needs, satisfaction with care, and quality of life in compulsorily admitted patients with severe mental disorders.

This cross-sectional study compared the levels of needs, care satisfaction, quality of life, and social support of compulsory admitted patients with severe mental disorders to a comparable group of voluntary admitted patients. One hundred and twenty-five patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder were admitted to a hospital by district psychiatrist order (DPO), court observation order (COO), or voluntary (VA). Participants were assessed before discharge using questionnaires, and psychiatric rating scales.

Truck attack: Fear of ISIS and reminder of truck attacks in Europe as associated with psychological distress and PTSD symptoms.

Following an ISIS attack, the present study examined the association between psychological distress and severe stress symptoms with vulnerability variables: i.e. Physical proximity to the site of the terror attack, Associative memory of prior events, Danger perception and ISIS anxiety.

Terrorism reports: The tip of the iceberg.

Importance: Medical impact of terror is a public health issue as the threat is growing all over the world.

Objective: Our objective was to compare the number of injured and incidents in the three different databases and reports [Global Terrorism Database (GTD), Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and National Insurance Institute (NII)] in Israel.

Design: Retrospective study.

Efficacy of the I-SOCIAL intervention for loneliness in old age: Lessons from a randomized controlled trial.

Loneliness is common among older persons and is associated with adverse health and wellbeing outcomes. We investigated a theory-based intervention that addresses barriers to social contacts and aims at increasing social self-efficacy. Individuals that met pre-assessment criteria of cognitive function, physical health, and loneliness levels were randomly assigned either to the I-SOCIAL intervention that combined both individual and group sessions to address individuals' unique social challenges, or to the control group.

Lessons From Analyzing the Medical Costs of Civilian Terror Victims: Planning Resources Allocation for a New Era of Confrontations.

Unlabelled: Policy Points: Across the globe, the threat from terrorist attacks is rising, which requires a careful assessment of long-term medical support. We found 3 major sources of costs: hospital expenditures, mental health services dedicated to acute stress reactions, and ambulatory follow-up. During the first year, most of the costs were related to hospitalization and support for stress relief.

Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Population-Based Nested Case-Control Study in Israel.

Accumulating evidence suggests that perinatal air pollutant exposures are associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but evidence for traffic pollutants outside the United States is inconclusive. We assessed the association between nitrogen dioxide, a traffic pollution tracer, and risk of ASD. We conducted a nested case-control study among the entire population of children born during 2005-2009 in the central coastal area of Israel.

Workplace violence in a tertiary care Israeli hospital - a systematic analysis of the types of violence, the perpetrators and hospital departments.

Background: Worldwide, there is a widespread and disturbing pattern of violence towards healthcare workers. However, violent occurrences in Israeli hospitals have often been unrecognized and underreported. Moreover, most studies have not sufficiently differentiated among the different types of violence.

Social support for terror-related victims: The Israeli system.

Since its foundation, the State of Israel has been affected by terror violence toward its civilian population. For more than 45 years, the Israeli legislation has built a legal insurance allowing citizens casualties of such violence to benefit from specific coverage and support. The objective of this article is to describe the history, legal framework, and organization of social support for terror victims in Israel.

Correlates and predictors of loneliness in older-adults: a review of quantitative results informed by qualitative insights.

Background: Older persons are particularly vulnerable to loneliness because of common age-related changes and losses. This paper reviews predictors of loneliness in the older population as described in the current literature and a small qualitative study.

Methods: Peer-reviewed journal articles were identified from psycINFO, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar from 2000-2012.

The Long-Term Care Insurance Program in Israel: solidarity with the elderly in a changing society.

The Long-Term Care Insurance Program (LTCIP) in Israel is a social security program administered by the National Insurance Institute (NII) since 1988. LTCIP focuses on home-based personal care services. Differently from most other programs under the responsibility of the NII, LTCIP benefits are in-kind benefits and are delivered via multiple for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.

Colorimetric analysis of silicone cosmetic prostheses for upper-limb amputees.

Every year the Italian National Insurance Institute of Accidents on Work (INAIL) Prosthesis Centre manufactures more than 300 silicone cosmetic upper-limb prostheses that are aesthetically similar to patients' missing limbs; however, the prostheses have the following drawbacks: subjectivity in color choice, high production costs, and long time frames for patient tests and prosthesis production. In an attempt to minimize these factors, we performed a study to test various systems that automatically detect the color of human skin. Such a system would allow us to reproduce a patient's exact skin color for silicone cosmetic prostheses.

Insomnia, biological clock, and the bedtime decision: an economic perspective.

While insomnia can be a symptom of numerous mental and physical illnesses, it is frequently diagnosed as a sleep disorder in its own right, caused mainly by stressful life events or by non-synchronization of individuals' biological sleep-wake cycle with the one they choose to practice. Because of irregular work schedules, late-night entertainment, or rapid crossing of several time zones, individuals might retire to bed earlier or later than their biological bedtime, experiencing difficulties in falling asleep. The present paper develops a simple economic model of the bedtime decision, viewing the individual as a rational decision-maker who determines her insomnia level through consciously weighing the cost and benefit of deviating from her biological bedtime.

Withholding information from cancer patients as a physician's decision under risk.

When cancer is diagnosed, the physician may face a dilemma regarding disclosure of information to the patient. While he or she may feel a responsibility to maintain the patient's hope, even through the withholding of information, there is a risk involved: if treatment fails, the patient will eventually know the truth. Patients who would rather live their final days in peace rather than undergo unpleasant treatment of an uncertain nature may be furious and frustrated that they have been deprived of this liberty, ending their lives feeling worse than they would have had they been told the truth at the outset.

Phobic disorder, psychotherapy, and risk-taking: an economic perspective.

Phobic disorders are receiving much attention in psychiatric practice today. Agoraphobia, the most common of the phobic disorders, involves the risk of experiencing a panic attack in public places, thus discouraging the worker from fully participating in the labor market. This paper applies the economic tools of rational choice under uncertainty to the analysis of agoraphobia, with the purpose of gaining more insight as regards the extent of deviation from normal work behavior (which presumably responds to incentives) and the effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating work-avoidance, challenging the popular claim that the cost of psychotherapy helps ensure its success.

[Intervention program for prevention of premature deliveries in Beit Shemesh].

Programs for the prevention of premature births have been developed world-wide to reduce perinatal mortality and child morbidity and handicaps. The Beit Shemesh intervention program focused on locating and improving socio-economic conditions, in addition to medical-nursing aspects. Beit Shemesh (located 30 km SW of the nearest Jerusalem hospital; population 14,000; 350-400 births per year) was chosen because its rates for preterm delivery (36 weeks or less) and for low birthweight neonates were higher than the national rates, it was of low socio-economic status, and because of its well-developed and accessible local health services infrastructure.