This study explored intervention outcomes and mechanisms that could help explain why low-income, African American women with a history of intimate partner abuse and suicide attempt improve in response to a culturally-informed intervention, the Grady Nia Project. Specifically, the investigation examined whether or not the intervention had effects on the women and whether or not spiritual well-being and coping mediated the effects of the intervention on suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms. In this randomized controlled clinical trial, data from 89 women who completed both pre- and post-intervention assessments were analyzed. During the post-intervention follow-up, women in the active intervention group reported lower levels of suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms and higher levels of existential well-being and adaptive coping skills than those women randomized to the treatment as usual group. However, only existential well-being was found to mediate treatment effects on suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms. Religious well-being, as well as adaptive and maladaptive coping, did not serve a mediational function. These findings highlight the importance of designing and implementing culturally-sensitive and evidence-based strategies that enhance existential well-being in this population.

The multidimensional construct of perfectionism is well studied as it relates to coping with stress and burnout (Childs & Stoeber 2012; Flett & Hewitt 2002). Bontempo and Napier (2011) identify the personality trait of conscientiousness, which includes perfectionistic traits, as beneficial to an interpreter’s job performance. In contrast, several studies suggest that constructs related to maladaptive perfectionistic traits play a role in the development of burnout among interpreters, although perfectionism has not been explicitly identified or used as a research variable (Qin et al. 2008). These studies identify key components of both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in the assessment of stress-related outcomes, thereby laying the groundwork for a more focused study on the particular role of perfectionism among interpreters who experience burnout. The current study evaluated the relationship between perfectionism, perceived stress, coping resources and burnout in a sample of sign language interpreters. The results provided support for the mediating role of perceived stress in the association of maladaptive perfectionism and burnout within the sample. Coping resources did not serve as a moderator between perfectionism variables and burnout, or as a moderated mediator between perfectionism variables and perceived stress. The implications of these findings for sign language interpreters are discussed.

Childhood maltreatment places individuals, including African American women who are undereducated and economically disadvantaged, at risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Participants were 192 African American women with a history in the prior year of both a suicide attempt and intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure. They were recruited from a public hospital that provides medical and mental health treatment to mostly low-income patients. A simple mediator model was used to examine if (1) existential well-being (sense of purpose) and/or religious well-being (relationship with God) mediated the link between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms. Sequential multiple mediator models determined if physical and nonphysical IPV enhanced our understanding of the mediational association among the aforementioned variables. Findings suggest that existential well-being mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and adult PTSD symptoms in a simple mediator model, and existential well-being and recent nonphysical IPV served as sequential multiple mediators of this link. However, religious well-being and physical IPV were not significant mediators. Findings underscore the importance of enhancing existential well-being in the treatment of suicidal African American women with a history of childhood maltreatment and IPV.

Jail-based competency restoration largely emerged as a method to address the backlog at forensic hospitals around the United States, as the number of justice-involved persons in need of restoration outgrew available beds. Jail-based competency restoration units (JBCRUs) appear to be highly effective and cost-saving. However, after the COVID-19 outbreak, services at some JBCRUs were stalled, as providers were forced to either quickly initiate or ramp up technology use to maintain services. The present study describes the course of programming for a JBCRU in Fulton County, Georgia, prior to and after the onset of COVID-19, during which time all treatment shifted to telehealth. A matched comparison group of prepandemic defendants was used to compare in-person versus telehealth services and findings indicated that while defendants’ length of stay remained effectively the same, the restoration rate for telehealth increased remarkably over prepandemic levels (χ2 = 10.1, p = .001). Such findings suggest that telehealth services are an effective mode of delivery for competency restoration.