Students’ Confidence and Interest in Palliative and Bereavement Care: A European Study

As part of a European Erasmus Plus project entitled Death Education for Palliative Psychology, this study assessed the ways in which Master’s Degree students in psychology and the creative arts therapies self-rated their confidence and interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care. In five countries (Austria, Israel, Italy, Poland, Romania), 344 students completed an online questionnaire, and 37 students were interviewed to better understand their views, interest, and confidence. The results revealed some significant differences between countries, and showed that older respondents with previous experience as formal caregivers for end-of-life clients showed greater interest in obtaining practical clinical competence in these fields. A mediation analysis indicated that students’ previous care experiences and past loss experiences were related to students’ current interest in death education and palliative and bereavement care through the mediation of their sense of confidence in this field. The qualitative findings identified five shared themes: life and death, learning about death, the psychological burden, personal experience and robust training, and four key training needs. Overall, students’ interest in studying and working with terminal illness and death are rooted in internal resources, a preliminary sense of confidence, but also external requirements

Solastalgia's mourning and the slowly evolving effect of asbestos pollution: A qualitative study in Italy

In Italy, the problem of asbestos pollution is increasing in severity. In fact, in recent years, the number of people affected by asbestos-related illnesses has been growing because of the fibre's slowly evolving effects and its progressive pollution in the environment adjacent to the places where it is processed. Even though the physical consequences of asbestos are now quite clear, few studies have examined the psychological consequences of this kind of disaster. Since it is difficult to perceive its pathogenicity in daily life, this study was conducted in the affected areas of north-eastern Italy, using the qualitative research in psychology with 51 persons who experienced asbestos-related illnesses (19 sick persons and 37 relatives of sick persons). Their narratives described being rooted in a space contaminated by an invisible enemy. In particular, attention was paid to the consequent solastalgia, a kind of mourning arising from loss of place attachment. Results of the qualitative analysis revealed how the different phases of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross DABDA (Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance) model of coping with death constitute such feelings, whereas the dual-process model of Stroebe and Schut emphasised how these people seem to be loss oriented because of their perceived lack of community restoration. A discussion of the relationships between attribution of responsibility, entirely external and mostly inscribed in the DABDA categories of \u201banger\u2019 and \u201bacceptance\u2019, is presented, with further considerations about mourning and the need to improve specific psychological support in this field of environmental disaster

Developing spontaneity and well-being in women victims of domestic violence

In this paper we present the results of the last stage of the research project Empower Daphne that involved the participation of six countries belonging to the EU in two phases: I) validation of the theoretical model on which basis rests the construct of well-being and spontaneity; II) analysis of Morenian psychodrama intervention efficacy. 407 university students were part of the non-clinical sample in the first phase and 136 women victims of domestic violence made up the clinical sample for the second phase. During the six month the women took part in psychodramatic sessions, together with individual interviews. At the beginning and the end of the six month, a questionnaire was administered consisting of a well-being and a spontaneity scales. In the article we present the results that compare well-being and spontaneity between clinical and non-clinical samples, and between the clinical cut-off scores highlighted in the literature and the scores of clinical sample. The findings demonstrate interesting differences between two sample: observed lower levels of spontaneity and well-being in women victims of domestic violence, both before and after the psychodramatic intervention

Empower: A Daphne III project our mission, structure and results

Summary. This contribution presents the main results of Empower which is a research-intervention project in the real world that focuses on the problem of gender-based violence, particularly domestic violence and the mother-daughter relationship. The contribution develops the idea of Morenian sociatry where psychodrama can be considered an elective intervention to help those who are prisoners of victim-perpetrator relationships, since psychodrama proves valuable for troubleshooting identity. The University of Padua leads in every aspect of this project, and heads a partnership, composed of groups belonging to the FEPTO, that collaborate with anti-violence centers in Easter Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania) and Western Europe (Austria, Italy and Portugal

The effectiveness of the EMPoWER project and intervention: Psychodrama and the elaboration of domestic violence in Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania, and Albania

The chapter discusses the results of the Daphne Project WMPoWER. It showes a high validity of the research instruments used in the study. Moreover, the results obtained from the various samples of the different tests are positioned below the thresholds established by previous studies of validation. The results confirm the hypothesized model, showing positive correlations between indices of spontaneity and psychological well-being. The research supports the idea that both models (psychodramatic and psychosocial/ecological) contribute to strengthening the empowerment of women who suffer from domestic violence. The results obtained by the project are highly positive and confirm that this model of intervention should be extended, possibly prolonging the intervention and also measuring the follow-up after one year