Ron Shor

Background: Limited attention has been given to conceptualizing and examining what can help parents of adult children with mental illness recover from the impact of the illness on their relationship with their adult child. The concept of differentiation can serve as a means of exploring their recovery. Objectives: To examine changes in the parents' differentiation with the adult child and how differentiation occurred. Method: Personal interviews were conducted with 10 parents who are members of an association for family members of individuals with mental illness in Israel. A thematic analysis method was used. Results: After the onset of the mental illness, the parents experienced negative emotions and a process of mourning, and they struggled with emotional regulation. Over the years, the relationships with the adult child changed due to emotional and perceptual shifts regarding the mental illness and by learning how to adjust their interactions. Conclusions: The concept of differentiation can help assess the challenges parents face and focus on intrapersonal and interpersonal change‐promoting processes in the relationship with the adult child. Implications: Interventions should help parents overcome challenges after the illness begins and in developing differentiation in the relationship with the adult child to advance their recovery.

Caregivers of persons with mental illness experience stressors and anxiety during the psychiatric hospitalization of a family member. The implementation of a family-centered model could reduce these feelings, and therefore, such a model was developed in Israel. To examine whether the model's implementation makes a difference in the stress and anxiety experienced by caregivers, a comparative study was conducted in two psychiatric hospitals. Questionnaires were delivered twice to caregivers in an intervention group ( n = 93) and a control group ( n = 75). The anxiety level was lower in the intervention group than in the control group in the second delivery of the questionnaire. In addition, a lower level of anxiety was found in the intervention group in the second delivery of the questionnaire in comparison to the first. The findings, which can be attributed to the model's application, highlight the need for a paradigm shift to a family-centered model in psychiatric hospitals.

Key words: ADHD, Self-Compassion, Quality of life, Occupational Therapy Abstract Background: Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience multiple difficulties in functioning and quality of life (QoL). Biological factors have been shown to explain ~ 30% of QoL variance, yet according to a biopsychological perspective on health there is a need for additional research […]

The role of the religious socio-cultural context in the stressors that Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family caregivers of persons with developmental disorders coped with during the COVID-19 period and the role of religion in their ways of coping with these stressors were examined in a qualitative study among 19 caregivers in Israel. The findings indicate that the stressors which the caregivers experienced stemmed primarily from disruptions in the religious socio-cultural context of the family members with disability. They also illuminate the centrality of religious coping mechanisms for the caregivers. Taking this into consideration is essential for providing culturally oriented help for the caregivers.

Research aimed at understanding the barriers that family members of persons with mental illness may encounter in seeking supportive and preventative services from social workers during the hospitalization of their family member is scarce. Therefore, a cross-sectional survey study was implemented among 120 family members of persons with mental illness in family-centered services in two psychiatric hospitals in Israel. The research instrument included structured questionnaires and open-ended questions examining the barriers to seek help and the experience of families caring for a person with mental illness. The findings indicate that having a person with mental illness in the family may have significant implications on the barriers experienced by family members to seek help for themselves. The extent of the barriers could be related to factors such as the stigma they may experience, overwhelming reactions, lack of knowledge about the mental illness and about the availability of services for families, and dilemmas about seeking help. Social workers are in a key position in psychiatric hospitals to identify and reduce the individual as well as the contextual barriers. To increase family members’ readiness to seek help and their access to early intervention, they should adopt a family-centered approach.

Understanding the challenges of inclusion that students with severe mental illness experience are essential for developing inclusive environments in universities. Therefore, a study was conducted among students with mental illness participating in Supported Education programs in universities. A structured instrument was implemented with 79 students in Israel and 59 students in Denmark. Inclusion in a university was divided into social inclusion and academic inclusion. The findings indicate that the two subscales ranked the highest in both samples were ‘Difficulties With Learning Skills and Management of Academic Tasks’ and ‘Social Inclusion Difficulties’, ‘Barriers to Academic Inclusion’ and ‘Accessibility Barriers’ were ranked lower. These findings indicate that there are common functional difficulties in fulfilling the academic requirements which students experience in both countries as a result of their mental illness. However, it also indicates that their difficulties could stem from the social and environmental response in universities to students with mental illness. Therefore, to develop an inclusive academic environment, a bio-psycho-social perspective is necessary which can enable focusing on individual difficulties as well as broadening the focus of service delivery to adapt a broader social and environmental perspective which will enable persons with SMI to advance within inclusive academic environments.