Experience Of Crisis Research Articles

Overlooked professionalism-Individual factors for success of peer support workers

The peer support worker is becoming increasingly more relevant also due to the new personnel regulations. Therefore, the question arises which individual conditions for success are available for the implementation of peer support workers. This study is a subproject of ImpPeer-Psy5 study financed by Innovation Funds, which investigates the nationwide requirements for the implementation of peer support workers in care financed by health insurance funds (German Social Act V, SGB V). Using a comparative thematic analysis, 57 problem-oriented interviews with peer support workers (PSW), employees and users as well as a focus group based on this were examined. This study was predominantly implemented by a researcher who already had experience in psychiatry and crises. From the perspective of the employees interviewed, sympathy and personality are the core factors for a successful implementation of peer support workers. In contrast, a professional coping with one's own crisis and recovery experience as well as diverse previous life and occupational experiences were prioritized by the PSWs. In order to effectively incorporate the impulse of peer support workers, a recognition of the professional identity of the PSWs is necessary. In particular, settings that separate the tasks between the professional groups in a less hierarchical manner and rely on building relationships, such as domestic treatment, are particularly suited for the implementation of PSWs.

The effect of climate crisis on bipolar disorder: A qualitative study about experiences of individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

It can be said that the bipolar disorder is influenced by weather events. It is stated that climate change can have direct and indirect effects on bipolar disorder. Determining the impact of the climate crisis on individuals with bipolar disorder may assist in the development of preventive, protective and active treatment interventions for this group. The aim of this study was to determine the views and experiences of people with bipolar disorder about the impact of the climate crisis on their illness. The study was conducted using the phenomenological method, one of the qualitative study methods. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample for the study. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with the selected sample group. Data saturation was reached with 11 participants and data collection was finalized. The study data was collected using a personal information form and an open-ended structured interview form in which participants were asked about their views and experiences of the climate crisis. Voice recordings were transcribed, and categories, sub-themes and themes were formed. Based on the statements of people with a bipolar diagnosis, the study formed the themes of emotional impact, negative physical impact, impact on daily life, impact on symptoms, negative impact on recovery and ways of coping. People with a bipolar diagnosis are negatively affected by the impact of the climate crisis in many areas. There is a need to develop intervention programmes to arm people with a bipolar diagnosis against the negative effects of the climate crisis.

The directors of resident support program: a program evaluation of a resident well-being and support innovation

BackgroundMedical training can be a challenging time for residents both professionally and personally. Resident support programs must be able to address a range of potential experiences, be accessible and easy to navigate, and consider the unique context of residency. Rigorous evaluation of resident support programs is needed to determine whether these programs are meeting these goals.MethodsThe Directors of Resident Support (DRS) program, launched in January 2021 at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, is a near-peer support model consisting of three faculty physicians, trained in peer support, who receive contacts from residents needing support for any issue. DRS physicians provide empathetic listening, referral to existing resources, and peer support for residents. A multisource evaluation of the DRS program, including field notes, data collection forms, and surveys, was guided by the Donabedian framework.ResultsThere were 62 total contacts in the 2-year evaluation period which required a median 2 h to address (range 5 min to more than 40 h). The most common topic for contact was to discuss feedback or evaluation (n = 10, 24.4%) and the most common response was listening and support (n = 29, 70.7%). Residents also contacted DRS to discuss experiences of racism, physical assault, sexual harassment, and mental health crises. Residents (n = 13) rated a median score of 74 out of possible 100 for usefulness (interquartile range [IQR] 1-100, with higher scores suggesting greater usefulness). Free text survey responses suggested that residents felt validated by contact with the program though some residents felt that additional follow-up would have been helpful.ConclusionThe DRS program has been well-utilized by residents for a variety of issues. Postgraduate Medical Education offices seeking to create resident support programs may anticipate that about 3% of residents may use a similar program per year and that the typical interaction would last 2 h, with a wide range. Feedback suggested that similar programs should have a formal process for follow-up with residents to ensure their concern was addressed and that resident supporters should have diverse lived experiences.

Play as a phenomenon and metaphor of the park

The article analyses the works of Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga, who identified four distinctive features of play – free participation, creation of one’s own world, limited time of play, and order, as well as the works of French sociologist R. Caillois, who reduced the diversity of play to four types – competition, simulation, chance and vertigo. Creative concepts of parks are studied as an embodiment of alternative reality and integrity of the play in contrast to the experience of social development dissonance, identity crisis and lack of aesthetic harmony. The authors study the characteristics of the context of the play: the correlation between the rational and irrational, the limited material space, the presence of characters and rules, paraphernalia and performance as opposed to everyday life. Examples of realisation of playing practices in parks are given. Actualisation of the play in the modern entertainment industry is considered through the lens of theme parks.

The fi ght against the moral evil of war aft er 1945. Historical approach to the concept of post-war moralrevival of prof. Helena Radlińska

AbstractThe article was created on the basis of exploration conducted in accordance with the methodology of historical socio-pedagogical research. The initiator and promoter of this research was Helena Radlinska - the creator of Polish social pedagogy. Post-war experiences of moral crisis, to which prof. Helena Radlinska drew attention in the years 1946-1947, can today activate and inspire pedagogical communities, especially socio-pedagogical ones. Every war implies negative consequences in the economic and energy spheres. These processes are the subject of numerous analyses, debates and activities in the international arena. Much less attention is paid to the social effects of war. In this context, the selected subject of the moral evil of war appears to be an important and consistently relevant issue. It is therefore worth analysis, research, and discourse leading to corrective actions based on intentional influence in the sphere of moral education (moral upbringing). The aim of the article is to present the concept of counteracting the moral consequences of war as presented by Helena Radlińska. It may also be an encouragement for further scientific research aimed at searching for theoretical and methodical foundations for the practice of activities included in the field of upbringing, educational, caring, assistance and cultural activities, as well as promoting the culture of truth, goodness, and beauty in everyday social life of the 21st century.

Trauma Exposure Checklist: Preliminary Results Show Promising Psychometric Properties to Assess Subjective Perceptions of Exposure to Potentially Traumatic Events.

Most individuals in the general population will be exposed to potentially traumatic situations at some point in their lifespan. There is a strong body of research focusing on the clinical implications of exposure to potentially traumatic situations, but less attention has been given to psychological adjustment following these events. Very few available instruments assess trauma exposure while considering subjective perceptions of both positive and negative features. In this study, 304 adults from the general population, mostly women of middle and high socioeconomic status (mean age = 43), filled in a questionnaire with sociodemographic questions and an adapted version of the Trauma Exposure Checklist, which was originally developed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that most participants have experienced a potentially traumatic event, most prevalently related to violence and/or criminality and to the severe illnesses and deaths of close relatives. Principal components and reliability analyses lent support to a three-factor structure that considers perceptions of internal and external losses and a positive factor that addresses resources and social support. This study is a first step towards advancing our knowledge on the impact of developmental and sociodemographic factors on subjective experiences of psychological crises and, consequently, psychological adjustment throughout the lifespan.

Rural unpaid caregivers' experiences in northern Aotearoa, New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

Rural unpaid caregivers experience different opportunities and challenges than their urban counterparts. Our aim was to understand rural unpaid caregivers' experiences of challenges and opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand. Rural northern New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic. A convenience sample of 10 unpaid rural caregivers, most supporting an older person living with dementia. A qualitative descriptive design. Data included interviews and online workshops, and a thematic analysis. Rural unpaid caregivers observed that some aspects of living in a rural context were helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, tasks such as shopping and long-distance travel and communication (both telephonic and digital) became more complex. Abrupt changes to routine and closure of resources and support groups created challenges. Unpaid caregivers worried about what would happen if they were hospitalised themselves. There was a diversity of experience both across caregivers, of familiar routines and rural context as resources, increased challenges requiring resourcefulness to adapt, and experiences of crisis. Many experienced all three states at different times. This research provides valuable insights into challenges and opportunities experienced by rural unpaid caregivers during the Covid-19 pandemic and may help policy-makers and healthcare professionals develop improved emergency preparedness. Multilevel, multisector responses are needed to ensure effective health and social support and access to resources including health care, access to groceries and medication, transport, and communications (telephone and digital). Enhancing rural access to effective and inexpensive online services is particularly important, as is recognition of the value of rural sites or hubs of connection and social interaction.

A Feminist Autoethnography of a Family Archive: Affects, Narratives and Practices During Two World Crises: World War II and Covid-19

What happens when we, as researchers, are living through a world crisis such as Covid-19, whilst studying a family epistolary archive produced during World War Two, another world crisis? What epistemological and methodological bridges can be made between the personal experiences of two women (great aunt and great niece) living in two moments of history but who are connected by the process of writing and reading epistolary documents? By conducting a feminist autoethnography of my experience in the Covd-19 pandemic, I reflect upon what it has meant to do feminist historic and archival research of the experience of Trixie Mayer, the first Mexican volunteer to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain from 1942 to 1946 and who produced more than 200 personal documents during her war work and afterwards kept them, together with the documents she received form her family in Mexico, for more than 70 years. I analyse how living through a pandemic has helped me understand my great aunt’s crisis experiences from a different perspective, questions, partialities and, at the same time, how these personal and familiar writings have helped me understand and question our current reality and PhD thesis from an alternative perspective.

Ribų valdymas asmeninių socialinių paslaugų erdvėje: samprata, iššūkiai ir galimybės

In the face of external threats, Lithuania's personal social services system must adapt to ensure the continued delivery of services. It must respond to the need to change the content of services, expand the scope of services to include new clients, attract or admit new social service providers, and manage the boundaries between formally provided social services and other individuals and organizations offering assistance. The aim of this article is to define the concepts of 'boundaries' and 'boundary work' in the context of personal social services' resilience to external threats and to investigate how actors from different social spaces—formal (institutionalized) social service providers and non-formal (non-institutionalized) social assistance providers—characterize their interactions with each other and perform 'boundary work'. Research methods include interviews and focus groups. Research participants comprise: 1) formal social service providers (8 focus groups), and 2) informal actors operating in municipalities of different sizes (10 interviews). The study revealed that crises lead to shifts in the boundaries between the activities of different social service providers, increased interactions between actors from different social spaces, the creation of new cooperation networks, emerging opportunities for action, and limitations in their activities. In this phase of challenges and the search for solutions, new social service providers emerge and the contours of new forms of assistance take shape. Reflecting on the experience of crises allows for the construction of future projections for possible recurrent threats.

Antecedents of effectuation and causation in SMEs from emerging markets: the role of CEO temporal focus

Purpose Previous studies considered effectuation and causation as alternative decision-making strategies used by entrepreneurs to navigate uncertainty, having various individual- and firm-level antecedents. This study aims to broaden our understanding of individual-level antecedents by examining the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) temporal focus in decision-making processes in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach Based on a multiple case study research design, the authors empirically analyse 16 Russian SMEs to uncover how the CEO temporal focus relates to the choice of effectuation/causation strategies under uncertainty. Findings CEOs with past orientation tend to adopt causation, future-oriented CEOs adhere to effectuation, while present-focused CEOs rely on both decision-making strategies (i.e. ambidexterity). Prior crisis-related experience is the underlying mechanism behind the relationship between CEO temporal orientation and effectuation/causation strategies. The authors formulate several propositions that may be tested in future studies in the field. Originality/value The contribution of this study consists in uncovering a new individual-level antecedent of effectuation/causation under uncertainty (i.e. CEO temporal focus) and suggesting that prior crisis experience acts as a mechanism underlying this relationship. The authors advance the strategic leadership theory by underscoring the CEO’s role in decision-making processes in SMEs.

Better-prepared to face COVID-19: Organizational learning from SMEs’ experience with banking crises

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes whether experiencing a banking crisis influenced firms’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the organizational learning and crisis management literature, we hypothesize that firms with banking crisis experience may learn from it and, thus, have a greater capacity to react and adapt to future external crises through adequate adaptative mechanisms. Using a survey sample of over 31,000 small- and medium-size enterprises operating in 39 countries, we obtain results consistent with our hypothesis that firms with banking crisis experience coped better during the pandemic than other firms. This finding is observed regardless of the severity of the banking crisis episode or how long ago the banking crisis occurred. We further demonstrate that banking crisis experience’s positive impact is explained partly by the increase in human resource slack before the pandemic as a coping strategy.

Cross-class solidarity in times of crisis: the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on support for redistribution

This study investigates how the economic crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic impacted support for social assistance in Germany. We formulate our expectations drawing from the classical political economy literature on self-interest and the burgeoning research on the role of solidarity. On the one hand, we hypothesize that only low-income individuals impacted economically by COVID-19, who can benefit from social assistance, will support its expansion. On the other hand, we expect higher-income individuals affected economically by COVID-19 to be more supportive of social assistance, even though they do not benefit from it, and less likely to consider welfare recipients ‘undeserving’ compared to higher-income individuals not economically affected by the pandemic. We argue that first-hand crisis experiences update people’s beliefs about how luck impacts one’s economic situation in the presence of an exogenous shock. We combine observational and experimental data from an original survey collected in Germany in April 2021 to test our expectations. On average, low-income respondents appear to be the most vigorous supporters of social assistance, but their support is not conditional on their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we find that the support for more social assistance among affluent individuals depends on the economic impact of the pandemic. We experimentally manipulated the deservingness of welfare recipients and found that better-off respondents impacted by the pandemic were less likely to penalize even the most ‘undeserving’ welfare beneficiaries. We suggest that solidarity between classes in hard times may occur through a convergence of the deservingness perception among individuals. The article has broader implications for studying the effect of crises on solidarity and the conditional nature of class-based explanations for support for different welfare policies.

HERO in action (crisis): the role of psychological capital in experiencing an action crisis

In some situations, goal striving does not go without problems, leading to intrapsychic decisional conflict between giving up and persisting in problematic goal striving, known as an action crisis. However, only limited attention has been devoted to cultivable positive psychological resources that can shield individuals from an action crisis development. In the six studies, we examined the role of psychological capital (PsyCap), the higher-order construct based on similarities between hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism and their unique characteristics in an action crisis experience. A pilot study (N = 295) established a link between variables, indicating that the more PsyCap participants had, the fewer action crises they experienced (and vice versa). In a preregistered follow-up study (N = 210), this finding was replicated. Furthermore, it was shown that the relationship was indirect, potentially mediated by the appraisals of goal attainment. In the third study (N = 411), some essential aspects were varied. The main findings were conceptually replicated, showing that PsyCap was associated with action crisis and predicted it above and beyond selected personality traits (negative emotionality and conscientiousness). In the fourth and fifth study (N = 272 and N = 268), the indirect role of goal-related negative emotions, controlled motivation, and effort was supported. Also, results were partially extended to goal progress. However, in a longitudinal study (N = 254) with the random intercept cross-lagged panel model, it was shown that although the average level of PsyCap across time points is negatively associated with the average level of action crisis (i.e., the between-person effect was supported), the cross-lagged within-subject effect of PsyCap on action crisis was not supported.

„Miręs asmeniniame gyvenime tampu išmintingesnis pagalboje kitam“: psichoterapeutų artimųjų netekčių patyrimo reikšmė darbe su psichoterapijos klientais

The article presents the significance of the experience of bereavement for psychotherapists in their therapeutic work. This issue has not been studied much in the world and has not been raised in Lithuania yet. Paradoxically, the „psychotherapist working on his/her own“ has not been an interesting object of research so far, and so far researchers are mainly interested in the effectiveness of the psychotherapy, the question how psychotherapist feels after the crisis experience and how it affects his/her work remains in the shadows. Thus, the aim of the research presented in this paper is to uncover and systematically describe the implications of psychotherapists’ experience of bereavement for their work with psychotherapy clients. A qualitative research strategy was chosen for the study, data were collected using in-depth semistructured interviews, and analysed using Thematic Analysis. Seven psychotherapists who had experienced the loss of a loved one during the course of their psychotherapeutic work participated in the study. Three themes and seven subthemes were identified in the study, revealing the multilayered nature of experiences in their psychotherapeutic work. Although all the psychotherapists had integrated the loss of a loved one in one way or another and felt personally grown up, this had undoubtedly left traces in their therapeutic work and was experienced as a personal and professional challenge.

The Discovery of English Wants: Dearth and Plenty in Early Modern Anglo-Indian Exchanges

English experiences of late-Elizabethan economic crises coincided with national ambition to engage in global trade, marking a shift in the discourse of “needs” and “wants” in the English commonwealth. English travelers and traders documented in different modes of writing the topography, climate, food resources, markets, and roadways of Mughal India to better understand local abundance, needs, and wants. Travel through food insecure regions in India, interaction with local inhabitants, and encounters with famine created hybrid chorographic modes: forms of writing about travel and place within English environments were adapted and applied to Indian regions. By examining the writings of four lesser-known travelers to India in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this article argues that English understandings of nationhood, population, and commonwealth were informed by attempts to comprehend, inhabit, and write the complex, contingent spaces of other populations and their needs, wants, and crises, as well as those of Britain. The English commonwealth was thus reimagined in the context of the wider demographics of plural populations.

A Consensual Qualitative Study on the Suicidal Crisis Experiences of International Students residing in Korea

A Consensual Qualitative Study on the Suicidal Crisis Experiences of International Students residing in Korea

The caregiving work experience of healthcare workers in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health: A qualitative study based on the international initiative HEROES.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of healthcare workers. Studying the care perspective is essential to understanding the causes of specific mental health findings and proposing strategies to address them. Cross-sectional study with a thematic analytical approach, derived from the international initiative "The Health Care Workers Study" (HEROES), conducted among healthcare workers in Chile during the second semester of 2022 and the first of 2023 through semi-structured interviews and inductive coding. A narrative synthesis of 35 interviews in four themes: care at work: the presence of changes in work tasks, concern about becoming infected, collective "mystique", stigma due to being a healthcare worker, conflicts with patients; care at home: multiple ways of arranging household tasks, the relevance of living with others, interrelation with work dynamics, "double burden" among women; relationship with one's own mental health: recognition of mental health impact, the stress associated with change and uncertainty, perception of work overload, feelings of guilt or responsibility for infecting family members; and beliefs and values about the pandemic and its effects: acceptance of psychological impact on healthcare workers, organizational culture as a relevant element in postponing one's own mental health, initial disbelief in the effects of the pandemic, similarities with previous periods of social upheaval, and equality among people in terms of vulnerability to the disease. Five elements emerge as potential areas for intervention: gender perspective, previous exposure to crisis experiences, self-care spaces, peer support, and institutional response. The care perspective helps study the relationship between some stressors and healthcare workers' mental health in the context of a pandemic.

Mental Health Crisis: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis.

The term 'mental health crisis' is a widely used concept in clinical practice and research, appearing prominently in mental health literature across healthcare and social science disciplines. Within these contexts, the term is frequently either left undefined or defined rather narrowly, confined to clinical observations or guidelines targeted at healthcare providers and negating the multifaceted nature of crisis as described by those with lived experience. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the characteristics of and provide a conceptual definition for the concept of 'mental health crisis'. Rodgers' method of evolutionary concept analysis was employed and 34 articles, ranging from 1994 to 2021 and a variety of disciplines, were analysed. The results highlighted the contrast between clinically oriented surrogate terms and related concepts and those used by individuals with lived crisis experience. Antecedents of crisis included underlying vulnerabilities, relational dysfunction, collapse of life structure and struggles with activities of daily living. The concept's attributes encompassed the temporality of crisis, signs and symptoms of crisis, functional decline and crisis in family and caregivers. Finally, the consequences comprised looking inward for help, looking outward for help, and opportunities and dangers. This concept analysis serves as a foundational step in understanding 'mental health crisis' and its various dimensions, facilitating more nuanced discussions and interventions in the realm of mental healthcare.

The burden of thalassemia disorder: Past and present: The feedback of patients experience in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

Abstract: Thalassemia is a genetic blood condition and one of the emerging global public health concerns in the world, with an estimated prevalence of 300,000,000 . The genes controlling hemoglobin production are affected, leading to an anemia of variable severity. Carriers of this hereditary anemia are found globally, but a high frequency is observed around the Mediterranean basin, in the Middle East, in the Indian subcontinent, and in Southeast Asia, so called the thalassemia belt. This article aims to review the history and factors of spreading of thalassemia, to identify the burden of the disease on individuals, population, and public health, and the issues that thalassemia patients have experienced during the pandemic of COVID-19. Online literature and previous studies on the disease are used to prepare this article. We identified various factors that have contributed to the spread of thalassemia in the last decades and affected the health condition of individuals and population. The recent worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 worsened the situation and made it more complicated for most patients, especially in the emerging countries.

Creation of a Spatiotemporal Algorithm and Application to COVID-19 Data

This study offers an in-depth analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic’s trajectory in several member countries of the European Union (EU) in order to assess similarities in their crisis experiences. We also examine data from the United States to facilitate a larger comparison across continents. We introduce our new approach, which uses a spatiotemporal algorithm to identify five distinct and recurring phases that each country underwent at different times during the COVID-19 pandemic. These stages include: Comfort Period, characterized by minimal COVID-19 activity and limited impacts; Preventive Situation, demonstrating the implementation of proactive measures, with relatively low numbers of cases, deaths, and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions; Worrying Situation, is defined by high levels of concern and preparation as deaths and cases begin to rise and reach substantial levels; Panic Situation, marked by a high number of deaths relative to the number of cases and a rise in ICU admissions, denoting a critical and alarming period of the pandemic; and finally, Epidemic Control Situation, distinguished by limited numbers of COVID-19 deaths despite a high number of new cases. By examining these phases, we identify the various waves of the pandemic, indicating periods where the health crisis had a significant impact. This comparative analysis highlights the time lags between countries as they transitioned through these different critical stages and navigated the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.