Skip Navigation



BJSW Advance Access published online on July 31, 2006
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl081
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
37/7/1247    most recent
bcl081v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dekel, R.
Right arrow Articles by Solomon, Z.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

Article

The Cost of Caring? Social Workers in Hospitals Confront Ongoing Terrorism

Rachel Dekel 1 *, Shira Hantman 2, Karni Ginzburg 3, and Zahava Solomon 4

1 Senior lecturer in the School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
2 Faculty member and Director of the Continuing Education Programme at the Shapell School of Social Work, at Tel Aviv University
3 Lecturer in the School Social Work at the Tel-Aviv University
4 Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Social Work at the Tel-Aviv University and the Head of the Adler Research Center for Child Welfare and Protection

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Rachel Dekel, E-mail: dekell{at}mail.biu.ac.il


  Abstract

The study reported here assesses the severity of post-traumatic symptoms and emotional distress among hospital social workers who provided emergency treatment to victims after terrorist attacks in Israel. We examined the contributions of personal and professional exposure to terrorism, professional training, supervision, sense of professional confidence, and optimism to the severity of distress among 144 social workers at eighteen hospitals in various parts of the country. Emotional distress was assessed by two measures: secondary traumatization (post-traumatic symptoms after treating victims of terrorist attacks), and additional psychiatric symptomatology. Only 7 per cent of the workers reported secondary traumatization, and their levels of distress on accompanying psychiatric symptoms were significantly lower than the norms for the general Israeli population. We also found that professional exposure to terrorism, sense of professional confidence and optimism contributed significantly to the explained variance in distress. The discussion deals with the findings in light of the rise in terrorism in recent years and the professional literature on the topic.

Keywords: social workers, secondary traumatization, optimism, terrorism.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br J Soc WorkHome page
R. Dekel and N. Baum
Intervention in a Shared Traumatic Reality: A New Challenge for Social Workers
Br. J. Soc. Work, November 24, 2009; (2009) bcp137v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J Soc WorkHome page
R. Lev-Wiesel, H. Goldblatt, Z. Eisikovits, and H. Admi
Growth in the Shadow of War: The Case of Social Workers and Nurses Working in a Shared War Reality
Br. J. Soc. Work, September 1, 2009; 39(6): 1154 - 1174.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
M. Shamai and P. Ron
Helping Direct and Indirect Victims of National Terror: Experiences of Israeli Social Workers
Qual Health Res, January 1, 2009; 19(1): 42 - 54.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.