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Coping and Resilience Facing Medical Illness | The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare

Coping and Resilience Facing Medical Illness

This group focuses on promoting health and coping with illness. Our research explores the impact of illness, including End of Life Care and the impact on patients, their family members and professional caregivers. Our theoretical and empirical background is based on the prism of trauma, resilience and literature on post-traumatic growth. Currently, we are working on two main projects, the first: Predicting effective adaptation to breast cancer to help women BOUNCE Back: a collaboration with experts from the fields of oncology, computer modeling, psychology, and social medicine from Finland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Israel. The second project studies medical health professionals in several Israeli medical centers, and how they are influenced, both professionally and personally, by the provision of end of life care. A better understanding of these influences can help devise specific interventions to reduce professional burnout in this field. The current studies are taking place: 1) Predicting effective adaptation to breast cancer to help women BOUNCE Back 2) Effect of providing End of Life care of medical health personne. 

Research Team: Prof. Ruth Pat-Horenczyk, Yaffa Stokar, Rawan Dahabre, Hanan Khoury

For more information: ruth.pat-horenczyk@mail.huji.ac.il

Publications:

1. Hamama-Raz, Y., Perry, S., Pat-Horenczyk, R., Bar-Levav, R., Stemmer, S. (2012). Factors affecting participation in group intervention in patients after adjuvant treatment for early-study breast cancer. Acta Oncologica, 51, 208-214.

2. Pat-Horenczyk, R., Perry, S., Hamama-Raz, Y., Ziv, Y., Schramm-Yavin, S., Stemmer, S.M. (2015). Posttraumatic Growth in Breast Cancer Survivors: Constructive and Illusory Processes. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28, 214-222. DOI: 10.1002/jts.22014.

3. Hamama-Raz, Y., Pat-Horenczyk, R., Perry, S., Ziv, Y., Bar-Levav, R., & Stemmer, S. M. (2016). The Effectiveness of Group Intervention on Enhancing Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Breast Cancer Patients: A 2-Year Follow-up. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 15(2), 175-182.‏ DOI: 10.1177/1534735415607318.

4. Pat-Horenczyk, R., Saltzman, L. Y., Hamama-Raz, Y., Perry, S.., Ziv, Y., Ginat-Frolich, R., & Stemmer, S. M. (2016). Stability and Transitions in Posttraumatic Growth Trajectories among Cancer Survivors: LCA and LTA Analyses. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, practice and policy, 8(5), 541-5419. DOI: 10.1037/tra0000094.

5. Hamama-Raz, Y., & Pat-Horenczyk, R., Roziner, I, Perry S. Stemmer, S. (2019). Can Posttraumatic Growth after Breast Cancer Promote Positive Coping? A Cross-Lagged Study. Psycho-Oncology.

Submitted for Publication:

Hamama, L., Hamama-Raz, Y., Stokar Y.N., Pat-Horenczyk, R., Brom, D. & Harlev-Bron, E. (under review). Burnout and perceived social support in physicians and nurses: The mediating role of secondary traumatization. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing.

Hamama-Raz, Y., Hamama, L., Stokar Y.N., Pat-Horenczyk, R. Brom, D. & Baron-Harlev, E. (under review) Secondary traumatic stress and posttraumatic growth: Comparing pediatric hospital professional sectors. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

In preparation:
Stokar, Y.N. & Pat-Horenczyk, R. The effects of end of life care on medical healthcare professionals.