Consultation for Groupworkers

The starting point of this paper is the shortage of literature on the theory and practice of groupwork consultation for qualified practitioners. Those particular features of groupwork which will influence groupwork consultation are identified; a framework is outlined for thinking about sources, models and methods of consultation; a value-base for groupwork consultation is discussed; and detailed illustrations of individual and group approaches to consultation are given.     

社会工作实务课程“体验教学”活动设计

体验教学法关注学生的心理体验,通过合理设计课堂体验活动,把社会工作实务技术与学生的生活实际结合起来,并鼓励学生重视自己的体验,在体验中领会社工实务的理念。实践证明,体验教学能够激发学生的学习兴趣,让学生更深刻地认识自己、了解自己,理解社工实务技巧。     

Infusing gerontology throughout the BSW curriculum

How can social work educators ensure that all of their BSW students have the savvy and "know-how" to deal with the needs of our growing aging population? The development of broad-based, innovative gerontological learning opportunities in a BSW program in a small liberal arts and sciences college is presented in this article. Strategies for actively involving community representatives in curriculum changes and participatory learning experiences with students are shared. Ways to incorporate various disciplines in the BSW education are explored in addition to developing intergenerational projects, direct involvement of older persons in the educational process, and ways to unite field practice with theory.     

Supporting Family Carers Through Telephone-Mediated Group Programs: Opportunities For Gerontological Social Workers

ABSTRACT

Telephone-mediated group programs are an important but under-utilized medium for reaching frail or disabled older persons' family carers who are in need of support. The primary purpose and style of group programs can range across a broad spectrum–encompassing educational, supportive and therapeutic types. Gerontological social workers are the members of the multidisciplinary care team whose training, experience and supervision makes them most suitable for facilitating this broad range of group types. Drawing on the experience of training a number of group facilitators, this article provides suggestions for social workers contemplating the use of telephone-mediated groups and highlights groupwork skills peculiar to conducting group programs via the telephone.     

Nondeliberative Crisis Intervention in Disaster Zones: Social Group Work Using Guided Artwork with Child Survivors

ABSTRACT

Sudden disasters cause devastating loss and trauma. Social groupwork can help heal and empower survivors through the use of nondeliberative practice forms. The authors describe a social group work model using guided artwork activities with child survivors of disasters such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and the 2014 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The authors also examine the features of nondeliberative theory exemplified through work with artful media in this groupwork context. Features include the use of analogs, representational problem solving, and feedback that takes place in a lived, experiential dimension.     

Consultancy to groupwork programmes for adult male sex offenders: some reflections on knowledge and processes

Summary This paper, drawing on the author's own experience, exploresthe role of consultancy in developing groupwork programmes foradult male sex offenders. It reviews models of consultancy andconsiders their applicability to this particular area of work.It considers what knowledge and experience are relevant to thisarea of work. It addresses issues relating to values, knowledge,gender and race both in developing programmes and in selectingconsultants. It considers how the focus and style of a consultancycan change during a period of work. Additionally, issues specificallyrelated to groupwork with sex offenders and how it may affectworkers are considered. In conclusion, the positive potentialfor this work is asserted.     

The ADHD treasure hunt: a group intervention using a social model approach to disability

ABSTRACT

This article describes the ADHD Treasure Hunt - a groupwork model that integrates the spirit of a social model of disability into therapeutic practice with parents and children. Following a discussion on the discourse and controversy over the nature and treatment of ADHD in Western society, we evaluate our intervention in terms of its usefulness in addressing a family’s sense of helplessness and frustration in the face of social interactions. The model also focuses on helping the families recognize the value of their own experiential knowledge. We examine the contributions of the model to current practice as well as offer future directions for its development.     

Coping with a Life-threatening Illness: an Experiment in Parents' Groups

Summary Four separate series of parents' groups were held between 1977and 1981 in order to help certain parents of children who sufferfrom cystic fibrosis which is a serious life-threatening disease.These group experiences were found helpful by those parentswho did not have overt problems and who were therefore unlikelyto be referred for individual counselling. Families who hadobvious problems, for example marital, financial or psychiatricwere apparently not helped by the experience, nor were the parentsof newly diagnosed patients. As a result of this groupwork experiment it may be possibleto predict those families who are unsuitable for groupwork help.     

Learning and development journeys towards effective communication with children

There are continuing concerns about the quality of social workers' communication and engagement with children. This has led to a focus in England on whether qualifying courses prepare students sufficiently for practice. Although research has uncovered the capabilities social workers need to engage and communicate effectively with children, there has continued to be limited evidence in relation to which pedagogical approaches might best enable students to develop capability. This paper attempts to address some of this deficit by reporting in‐depth case study findings from a larger longitudinal study into the factors that supported a cohort of students in England in learning to communicate with children. Case analyses are presented in respect of two participants whose learning journeys were emblematic of many in the cohort. Their trajectories draw attention to the significant role that pre‐course experience with children can play in the development of students' self‐efficacy and in providing a rich source of experiential learning that can be built upon. Suggestions are made for how qualifying courses might provide alternative experiential learning opportunities, including role play, child observation and opportunities for reflection on pre‐course experience with adults to help students establish the transferability of their learning.     

国内社会工作专业实践教学引入服务学习的思考

目前国内社会工作专业实践教学面临着独特的本土化处境,在国外及我国港台地区适用的社会工作专业学生到社会工作专业机构参加实践的教学模式在国内基本上无法照搬使用。由于我国社会工作的发展属教育先导型,国内社会工作实践教学与服务学习具有高度的契合性,可引入服务学习,增强实践教学实效,为此需要创造相应的条件。     

社会工作实务课程“体验教学”活动设计

体验教学法关注学生的心理体验,通过合理设计课堂体验活动,把社会工作实务技术与学生的生活实际结合起来,并鼓励学生重视自己的体验,在体验中领会社工实务的理念。实践证明,体验教学能够激发学生的学习兴趣,让学生更深刻地认识自己、了解自己,理解社工实务技巧。     

Creation of a social work practice plan: an attempt to learn from business and logic modelling

Social work practice is often criticised for lack of support of theories and research evidence. This article attempts to learn from business practice and proposes the creation of a plan as an essential part of social work practice and education to encourage the use of theories and research evidence in social work practice and to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of social work practice. Based on logic modelling, a modified logic social work practice plan is presented and illustrated using a case example. The plan incorporates basic social work elements and the elements of alternative interventions, monitoring and control as well as cost. The potential benefits of inclusion of practice plan in social work practice and the ways to promote the adoption of a practice plan in social work education and practice are discussed.     

Partners in practice: Developing integrated learning opportunities on the Frontline child and family social work qualifying programme

The Frontline programme is a social work qualifying route, in England, featuring a different approach to curriculum design and delivery. Students are based in groups of 4, learning through practicing social work in a statutory child and family social work setting, alongside a Consultant Social Worker (in the role of practice educator). They are also supported by an Academic Tutor who works in partnership with the Consultant Social Worker to facilitate learning. A weekly “unit meeting” is a foundational aspect of the programme, providing opportunities for in‐depth discussion, teaching, and reflection on practice with families. The authors worked together over the first 2 cohorts of the programme and undertook action research to explore the learning opportunities that arise when academic staff and practitioners work side by side to support student learning in this model. Three broad themes were identified which were considered to be significant in helping students to learn which are explored in the paper:

• Learning through engaging in joint dialogue about practice in a unit meeting
• The influence of relationships on learning in social work
• The importance of a connected model of learning which has practice with children and families at its heart

     

Developing Perceptions of Competence during Practice Learning

Practice learning is central to the changes in social work educationin the UK but the evidence-base indicating why this should behas not been rigorously examined. Studies of effectiveness conductedto date centre predominantly on the satisfaction of participants,relationships between teachers, supervisors or fieldwork educatorsand students, educational opportunities and developing aspectsof competence. This paper explores the concept of perceivedself-belief or self-efficacy as an indicator of developmentof competence during practice learning, examining whether self-beliefsin student competency do increase during placement and consideringhow this might be harnessed to enhance the experience and effectivenessof it. Findings from the study described indicate that studentperceptions of competence in relation to particular future performancedo increase from pre- to post-test during practice learning,suggesting that practice is effective in this respect and theconcept of self-belief can be utilized to challenge and extendstudent competence or identify areas for further work and development.However, the mechanisms by which these perceptions develop arenot clear and further research into practice learning is warrantedgiven the prominence accorded to it in social work education.     

What Makes for Successful Groupwork? A Survey of Agencies in the UK

Summary This paper reports the findings of a survey of Social ServicesDepartments, Probation Services and the major voluntary agenciesin the UK. The survey aimed to shed light on the factors whichpromote successful groups in social work and probation agencies.The survey did not attempt to map the extent of current groupwork.A questionnaire was piloted in a Social Services Departmentin northern England with social work and social care practitionersparticipating in ‘The Groupwork Project’, a trainingand development programme which continues to have as its aimthe establishment of a groupwork service in a mainstream socialservices agency. The survey was designed to be illuminativeand exploratory rather than conclusive. In this paper, the authorsreflect on the research process and on the findings of the survey.These findings point to the complexity of factors consideredsignificant to the success of a group, and to the importanceof contextual factors in establishing and sustaining a groupworkservice.     

Towards an Alternative Model of Social Groupwork

Summary This paper arose from our disagreement with some of the suggestionsin an earlier article in this journal (Brown et al., 1982).Before and since, we have both worked in and studied numerousexamples of groups of a type which, according to Brown and hiscoauthors, scarcely exists in British social work practice.This paper explains what we believe to be the actual significanceof the type of group work we refer to as ‘self-directed’,together with our view of its place within wider social work,community work, and groupwork practice. We also give examplesof such groups and conclude that their proliferation would enableworkers to go beyond the alleviation of individual distressinto the achievement of external change.     

The client as learner and the clinician as teacher: Working with an educational lens

This article highlights the social worker's role as educator and how that role relates to clinical practice. The educational component of practice is not grounded in a substantial theoretical, research, or practice literature, and yet teaching is a nascent role for most clinicians. For the most part, the educational aspects of clinical practice have languished, at least from a theoretical perspective, in the shadow of therapy. In this paper we advocate for developing and articulating the clinician/teacher role in order to support effective use of the learning relationship as a dynamic and necessary means for assisting clients in managing life transitions, developmental challenges, and adversity. We propose the use of an educational lens derived from the fields of education, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, to provide perspective from which the client is viewed as learner, and the client‐work relationship is seen as an educational transaction. We highlight the transformative power of educational transactions that we think are as significant as primary caregiving, and also provide a working definition of education as it is used in clinical teaching‐learning relationships. And finally, we elaborate on the range of purposes education may serve in social work practice.     

Liminality and learning: international placements as a rite of passage

This article reports findings from a collaborative study of UK student learning in Malaysia. We analyze the concept of liminality as a means of understanding the transitional process between states and statuses that social work students experience in practice learning. Here, in specific reference to immersion in new cultural contexts represented by international placements, the development and learning of students are explored in relation to the overlapping domains of familiar and unfamiliar ‘cultures’ and disciplinary practice. These findings carry implications in terms of the increasing popularity of international placements and the potential imposition of hegemonies of values and knowledge.     

Social Worker as Client: My Education as a Family Member in a Nursing Home

A social worker's professional experience in providing a service does not necessarily ease her own personal stress when she is the recipient of that same service. The author is a nursing home social worker whose own mother was a resident in the facility where she works. Her first-hand experience with the "system" and with her emotions brought new enlightenment to the practice of her profession.