The perceived helpfulness of rendering emotional first aid via email

The present research examined the perceived helpfulness of an increasingly widespread mode of psychological assistance, namely, emotional first aid via email. The sample comprised 62 naturally occurring email interactions between distressful clients and trained volunteers operating within the framework of the Israeli Association for Emotional First Aid. Data were gathered by means of a structured questionnaire and open-ended questions so as to examine the clients' motivation to seek help via email and evaluate their satisfaction with the responses obtained. The results revealed a preference for written communication and the accessibility of assistance to be the most frequent reasons for clients to choose the medium of email. Most clients found the responses to be helpful in providing emotional support, enhancing cognitive change and suggesting practical ways of coping. Women perceived the assistance to be more helpful than men did. The results are discussed in terms of the unique value of email as an agent of mental health assistance.     

On becoming textually active at Youthline,New Zealand

The phones hardly ring at Youthline New Zealand anymore; youth still have problems and seek help, but it mostly happens silently. This article reports on experiences of texting at a 24-hour crisis helpline for young people. To date, there has been no formal evidence base for this practice; however, for new practice, there never is. In prompting discussion, this article attends to the tight constraints that texting imposes, returning to the necessary and sufficient conditions of any effective therapeutic relationship particularly in regard to working with young people. New possibilities are demonstrated with emotional support being demonstrated even in the tightly constrained space of a text-based medium.     

One-to-one support for crisis intervention using online synchronous instant messaging: evaluating working alliance and client satisfaction

Young people are increasingly turning to online support, especially when traditional mental health services are not immediately available. Using a cross-sectional design, sociodemographic information and self-reported perceptions of the strength of the working alliance and client satisfaction were collected from a sample of participants (n = 78) who were users of a service providing free online support using synchronous instant messaging. The results reported a significant positive relationship between the strength of the working alliance and client satisfaction, suggesting that the strength of the working alliance remains a key component in counselling, even online. Participants, however, scored significantly lower on both the strength of the working alliance and client satisfaction, compared to participants in offline settings as reported in past studies.     

Effect of Color Coding on Visually Oriented Tests With Students of Different Cognitive Styles

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that differentially coded (black and white and color) illustrations had on students (N = 117) who were classified as field dependent, field neutral, or field independent as a result of their performance on the visually oriented Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Olt-man, Rashin, & Karp, 1971). Students were randomly assigned to two instructional treatments complemented by illustrations (black and white and colored). After receiving their respective treatments, students reviewed two visually oriented criterion tests. Two-way analyses of variance conducted on achievement scores indicated that field independents scored significantly higher than did field dependents on both visual tests, and differences between field-dependent and field-independent learners who received the color-coded treatments on the visual identification test were insignificant. Results indicate that field dependency is an important instructional variable and that for some types of learning objectives the process of color coding instructional materials may reduce achievement differences attributed to differences in cognitive style.     

A Transformative Eucharistic Vision for the Entire Oikoumene

This article begins from the awareness that in a world of affluence, millions are hungry. It addresses the question as to whether this is merely an economic issue or whether it also poses an ethical and theological dilemma, considering ways in which the situation we are living in challenges our faith in the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It asks how, in the situation as it is, there is any possibility of believing in such a transformation. Finally it questions whether there is any relationship between hope for the transformation of hunger amidst affluence and belief in the transformation of bread into the body of Christ, and outlines a transformative eucharistic vision for the global Christian Church.     

The im-possibility of secular critique: The future of religion's memory

The legacy of secular critique, with its Greek, Christian, Kantian, modernist traces, constitutes an aporetic law (or contradiction). That law is this: a critical legacy, if it is critical, can affirm and sustain itself only by trying to separate it from itself (from the very crisis that it is). The legacy or history of ‘religion’ is always a history of such critique. Such a legacy always anticipates critiquing itself, its memory (of whatever kind – racist, sexist, colonialist, nationalist). Such a legacy of critique is always a legacy of crisis. However, the crisis of such a legacy cannot be resolved, because critique, as kairos/krisis (critical/decisive moment), can admit of no resolution. Yet the (secular) history of religion, if it is ever historical, can only be a history of such aporetic critique. Such an aporetic critique will be the heritage of religion's im-possible ¹ ?1. I write the word impossible/impossibility with and without a hyphen. When I hyphenate im-possible, I do so to remain true to Derrida's use of it. The im-possible is irreducible to either possibility or impossibility. Sometimes Derrida also writes the word without hyphenating it, but he still implies such irreducibility. future. It is an im-possible future because it will always be a promise, a promise to separate it from itself, a promise that will remain always deferred, always to come. Today, the promise of this secular critique is (in) democracy with its sovereign ‘decisive’ politics. We can no longer simply critique the (future) legacy of religion, understood this way. To do so is to fulfil that legacy's own messianic wish. This is the aporetic limit of secular critique. To think at the limits of the legacy of the critique of religion is to think the very question of the (secular) history of ‘religion’ and its others, that is, ‘religions’.     

The Imperatives of Narrative: Health Interest Groups and Morality in Network News

This article examines some of the story conventions of network television news to explain the ways in which healthcare interest groups develop and maintain their presence in this medium—a process that has significant implications for public understanding of healthcare issues, and therefore to bioethics. The article is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on three major normative conventions of television news: adherence to a simple narrative structure, the balance ethic, and avoidance of the “think-piece” and outlines the basic strategies available to interest groups for exploiting these normative conventions. Section two introduces three case studies of organizations and individuals who have run high-profile media campaigns. Section three explores the implications for bioethics of the observations made in this article.     

Forging partnerships for mental health: The case of a prefecture in crisis ravaged Greece

Public health and in particular mental health have been severely affected by the multitude of socioeconomic crises experienced by people in Greece. The severe austerity programmes, have reduced access to health services and increased demand for publically funded health care. This paper presents a case study focusing on the impact of these measures on the lives of mental health providers in one prefecture in Crete. Focus group methodology was applied and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Analyses revealed three superordinate themes that converge at many levels and appear to be going counter to the circumstances: firstly, ‘forging partnerships for mental health’; secondly, ‘extending our reach’; and thirdly ‘transformations in professional identity through praxis’. These themes are discussed using the words of the participants and the relevant literature.     

Analytic Group Psychotherapy: A Uniquely Effective Crisis Intervention

This paper describes the author's experience doing crisis intervention with survivors of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. It focuses on enhancing the understanding of and potentially expanding the theory and technique of analytic group therapy as applied to this unique situation.Private practice in     

Approaching Complex Cases With a Crisis Intervention Model and Teamwork

Patients referred for genetic counseling may be in a state of crisis, feeling as though they are incapable of making decisions about the management of their pregnancy, genetic testing options and/or life planning issues. The role of the genetic counselor is to assist a patient through this crisis state by increasing the patient's understanding and by helping to facilitate decision making and adjustment to those decisions. In this paper we present a clinical genetic counseling case that was complicated by numerous medical and psychosocial issues. The wide scope of this case required the involvement of both a prenatal and a medical genetic counselor. Working as a team we utilized a crisis intervention model. Our counseling focused on identifying and isolating the issues, providing factual information, setting a time frame for decisions to be made, and encouraging social support and emotion-focused coping strategies.