Awareness of the need for culturally adapted mental health interventions is growing. The authors describe the cultural adaptation of an evidence-based practice (EBP), illness management and recovery (IMR), to the Arab population in Israel. The process included reviewing the literature on cultural adaptations of EBPs and interviewing Arab and IMR professionals, which helped inform modifications that reflected the norms of Arab society in Israel related to family, religion, and beliefs about mental health. The process yielded a culturally adapted IMR intervention, which was translated into Arabic and used to train Arab practitioners on implementation with Arab clients in Israel.
In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the need for cultural adaptation of evidence-based practices, which is essential for successful implementation in diverse cultural contexts. This study investigated the impact of a culturally adapted version of Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), an evidence-based practice developed in the United States, on Israeli Arabs with serious mental illness.Methods: Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared the outcomes of 86 people who completed the culturally adapted IMR version with outcomes from a matched control group (N=64) who received treatment as usual.Results: Mixed repeated-measures analyses of variance demonstrated significant improvements in the domains of recovery, hope, self-efficacy, and quality of life among those who completed culturally adapted IMR.
Conclusions:The culturally adapted Arabic version of IMR for Israeli Arabs was found to generate significant positive improvement. The findings are discussed with emphasis on the importance of cultural adaptation.
Background: Partnerships and family inclusion are embedded in mental health policies. Shared Decision Making (SDM) is as an effective health communication model designed to facilitate service users and providers engagement in reaching jointly decisions concerning interventions. Keshet is a 15 bi-weekly academic course for family members of people with mental illnesses that enhances positive family cognitive communication skills.Purpose: To exhibit how SDM is inherently expressed in Keshet.Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of previous Keshet evaluation studies and course protocols that focused on revealing SDM use.Results: SDM was found to be a prominent feature in Keshet interventions in both the structure of the course as well as the process and procedures. Following participation in the program, making decisions jointly was found to be a prominent feature.Conclusions: Interventions such as Keshet that include an SDM approach can contribute to the integration of academic, professional and “lived experience” within a shared perspective, thus promoting an enhanced equality- based SDM model that benefits individuals as well as mental health systems.
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