Spiritually Sensitive Social Work with Victims of Natural Disasters and Terrorism

Spiritually Sensitive Social Work with Victims of Natural Disasters and Terrorism

As a primary intervention, raising the topics of faith and religion with individuals traumatised by terrorism and/or natural disasters can be daunting for social workers, because victims often enter the helping relationship with feelings of helplessness, loss of personal control and of doubt about their relationships, environment, and their cultural and belief systems. Just as clients benefit f...

Helping victims of terrorism: what makes social work effective?

This study examined factors that contribute to effectiveness of social work for victims of terrorism, as reflected by a reduction of mental distress and promotion of personal growth in clients. Participants were 148 pairs of social workers and clients. Social workers completed questionnaires that assessed the intervention characteristics (micro- and macro-intervention effectiveness, supervision...

The Rise of Terrorism and Major Natural Disasters Requires Grid

Pargament's Theory of Religious Coping: Implications for Spiritually Sensitive Social Work Practice

This article proposes that Pargament's theory of religious coping can be a theoretical beacon to spiritually sensitive social work practice. It begins with a discussion of the raison d'être of spiritually sensitive social work, which is examined as being able to cast a holistic and positive glow on social work. Then it provides an overview and a critique of Pargament's theory, emphasising that ...

Natural disasters and indicators of social cohesion

Do adversarial environmental conditions create social cohesion? We provide new answers to this question by exploiting spatial and temporal variation in exposure to earthquakes across Chile. Using a variety of methods and controlling for a number of socio-economic variables, we find that exposure to earthquakes has a positive effect on several indicators of social cohesion. Social cohesion incre...