Integrating Process Interventions into a School-Based Curriculum Group

ABSTRACT

Manualized approaches are widely used in work with aggressive, impulsive, and oppositional behaviors to improve their peer relations, school behavior, and interactions with adults, including their teachers. When group-work principles and interventions are not applied to the live spontaneous group situations that arise, however, workers miss opportunities to further help members understand, incorporate, and practice the very behaviors being offered in the curriculum. This article describes a curriculum-based group experience and the successes and limitations of the work that was done and identifies areas in which the integration of more traditional group process interventions could have increased the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral curriculum-oriented approach.     

The Meaning of Camp and Social Group Work Principles

SUMMARY

The paper examines the experience of campers at a summer residential camp in relation to principles of group work practice that are incorporated into the camp program. Through the use of examples and stories from campers, six different principles are discussed in relation to their meaning to campers. All of the practice principles discussed are applicable to other recreational, residential, and educational settings.     

The Essential Power of Group Work

SUMMARY

For almost two decades, leaders in the field of social group work have been warning that the foundational principles and practice of group work as a modality are in danger of being absorbed into generalist social work practice. This paper expands upon the appeal of leaders in the social group work field to generate an environment in which group work is recognized as an integral method in social work practice and education. This paper examines group work as a powerful methodology in social work practice with a specific theoretical framework and skill base that is fundamental to the social work profession. The characteristics of group work's strengths are explored with a comprehensive overview that inspires renewed commitment to preserving, practicing and promoting social group work as a viable and integral part of social work practice.     

“Her Anger Frightens Me!” Using Group-Work Practice Principles and Feature Films in Teaching Clinical Practice in Mental Health

ABSTRACT

Combining group-work practice principles and the arts (feature films) can contribute to more effective teaching and enhance student clinical practice competency. By treating teaching as a form of group work and introducing a feature film into the classroom group, an instructor can reduce student-learning anxieties, teach core clinical concepts and skills, and enhance the classroom’s socioemotional climate. Vignettes demonstrate how this approach to teaching enriched students’ learning in an introductory clinical social work class on adult mental health.     

Transcending Differences: Using Concrete Subject-Matter in Heterogeneous Groups

ABSTRACT

The need to conduct social group work with heterogeneous members is a reality. Yet the social work literature does not offer much guidance in how to work with diverse groups of people. This paper illustrates a method of social group work that utilizes tangible and palpable subject matter as a therapeutic vehicle to create strong group cohesion with heterogeneous group members. It aims to explain how and why using non-personal subjects as the heart of the group helps people connect to themselves, to the world and to each other in a personal way. The examples given are from two groups that are very different in their compositions and very different from each other. One is a psycho-educational group at a Continuing Day Treatment Program for severely and persistently mentally ill elderly and the other is a group with adolescent and pre-adolescent females in a community center. Four benefits of using this method of social group work are outlined.     

Group work over a digital platform: Understanding middle-class struggle in pandemic

ABSTRACT

This narrative is about how a WhatsApp friendship group was turned into a process reminiscent of social group work and how it became a promising practice for its group members during the coronavirus pandemic. The narrative portrays the struggles of middle-class families of Indian society in this crisis situation and how some of their issues were addressed using the digital platform in a group context.     

Build the social justice bridge: participatory photography with the international group work community

ABSTRACT

“Build the Social Justice Bridge” was a participatory photography project that engaged international group workers in an assessment of group work as a social justice profession. Inspired by principles of photovoice research, the project invited social work students, educators, and practitioners from around the world to contribute photographs and brief narratives that represented the relationship between group work and social justice. The photographs were exhibited during the opening session of the 2018 Symposium of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG) in South Africa, where more than 200 participants from ten countries reflected on the meaning of the photos for the group work community. In viewing the photos, symposium participants identified a common vision of social justice as well as culturally-specific approaches to group work. Implications are drawn for the internationalization of professional knowledge.     

Organizational Insight and the Education of Advanced Group Work Practitioners

SUMMARY

This article is the second piece about a group work course designed for advanced work-study students who are not in field placement. It discusses how group workers can use organizational analysis to improve group work practice in agencies with both social conflict and social transition functions. Practice examples illustrate how students promote group work principles in settings where the method has historically had limited currency.     

Group Work Gets Physical: Self-Defense Class and Social Work

SUMMARY

This article examines how a self-defense class is a social work group when it incorporates basic group work principles. The ways in which stages of group development, member roles and mutual aid are used in a self-defense class will be explored. The article also highlights how a self-defense class can be a legitimate intervention for women who have been victimized.     

Group work is … powerful! This stuff changes … lives: training on group processes for facilitators of curriculum-based groups

ABSTRACT

This article describes a four-year group work training project conducted with facilitators of curriculum-based parenting groups who had not been trained in group work or group processes. A total 14 group facilitators and 144 group members from 34 groups were involved in the training and the mixed method evaluation. Participants described how the training modified their group facilitation, helping them understand that the groups themselves as well as the curricula were informative and transformative, and that group members as well as group facilitators had roles. Further, facilitators indicated that the training resulted in fundamental change in their self-perceptions from being simply purveyors of a parenting curriculum to empathic agents of change as well.     

An Ethical Dilemma in Elder Abuse

Abstract

While most elder abuse is perpetrated by family members, some may be performed by strangers. When the elderly victim reaches out to the social agency but then refuses services, an ethical dilemma is created for the social worker. Conflicts arise among social work values and the ethical principles of autonomy and paternalism, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. A model of ethical justification is applied that explains the possible decisions in this case. The actual resolution of the dilemma is accomplished through a social work practice principle.     

The erosion of democracy in many countries: what should be group work’s response?

ABSTRACT

In this paper we describe democracy and evidence of its erosion globally and in the US. Specific concerns about the erosion of democratic values are discussed, and how this erosion manifests in group behaviors. We call on group work to consider how the global expansion of repressive policies and practices that empower privileged and the elite impact group member participation, especially members of targeted minority groups. Through examples we demonstrate ways group work practice can champion the protection of all member voices, and preserve a structure and mechanisms that model such protections for all its participants.     

Adventure Therapy: Nondeliberative Group Work in Action

ABSTRACT

Nondeliberative group work allows group members to generate their own solutions and provides experiential opportunities to transfer learning to life outside of a therapeutic setting. Adventure therapy is explored as a tool for engaging groups in a nondeliberative manner. The theoretical underpinnings of adventure therapy are presented and contextualized within the larger framework of experiential education. Specific methods and models of adventure work are presented and considered in relationship to nondeliberative social work with groups. Two case examples are presented to illustrate the nondeliberative nature of adventure therapy.     

Friendship Across the Life Cycle

Abstract

Using a group work model, this article discusses a short term group for older women developed to explore the importance of friendship in late life. In collaboration with group leaders, group members determined weekly topics that explored the significance of friendship through the life cycle. Social work group practice that focuses on the meaning and development of friendship for and with older women is presented as an effective therapeutic intervention for practitioners in settings such as community mental health clinics, senior centers, elderly housing, home care agencies and nursing homes.     

Our Stories–Our Journey: An Empowerment Group Approach for Justice-Involved Women using Pecha-Kucha

ABSTRACT

This article presents Our Stories–Our Journey, a group-work intervention with justice-involved women. This narrative-based intervention helps members to develop insight into self-identity and to restructure narratives via mutual aid. Through a group-work intervention using empowerment and narrative theories with pecha-kucha (the word for chit-chat or chatter, in Japanese), incarcerated women work to create empowering stories that will support them in constructing new narratives. Considering the traumatic pathways to prison for women and the oppressive correctional environments, models of innovative programs that are strength based and empowering are needed that will guide the social work profession to work effectively with justice-involved populations.     

Hepatitis C psychoeducation curriculum topics generated by group members

ABSTRACT

Educational programs for hepatitis C (HCV) have been created by professionals. There has not been a focus on whether what clients want to know about HCV differs from what providers want patients to know. This study addresses this gap by examining topics selected by participants in an education/support group model. Data were collected as part of a randomized psychoeducation trial for patients with HCV. Topics were systematically generated by the members uniquely for each group. Topics and rank order for each group were generated and a combined variable was created. Twenty-eight different topics were identified across 12 groups. The total number of topics was 102, averaging 8.5 per group. Topics are divided into three separate conceptual groups, members’ personal relationship to HCV, medical aspects of HCV, and unique concerns. A patient-centered approach that addresses the needs of HCV patients first provides an optimal starting point to discuss HCV disease management.     

Applications of Reward Structures in Social Group Work

Group reward structures have been found to provide social workers with effective procedures for sustaining changes made by group members. This paper provides a review of the literature on reward structures in an effort to determine which work best with clients in sustaining changes they make in a group context. The pros and cons of individual and group reward structures are discussed and six principles to increase success are identified: (1) appropriate behavior must be reinforced; (2) reinforcers must be available to all members, but not too easily available; (3) reinforcers should be delivered close in time to the occurrence of Lhe behavior they reinforce; (4) reinforcers must be consistent in their application; (5) reinforcers must be appropriate to the chosen behavioral change; and (6) there must be a pattern of consistent reinforcement by significant others in a person's environment.     

A Different Kind of Holding Environment: A Case Study of Group Work with Pediatric Staff

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a nearly two-year intervention with staff at a major urban pediatric facility. The authors worked as trainers and consultants for two groups–the Emergency Department (ED) and Chronic Care units (CC). Following two days of training about grief and loss, highlighting skill building for work with traumatized and grieving children and parents, the consultants worked to develop teams which could provide a Winnicottian holding environment for staff. The efficacy of this staff training is analyzed and support needs of staff members are identified. Findings include varied willingness to make use of group support. Chronic care participants are more likely to express willingness to engage in on-going support for one another, while ED staff members seem to prefer structured, educational training and episodic support. The holding environment of the processing groups must be adapted to fit the needs of the medical sub-culture.     

Intergroup Contact: Using Storytelling to Increase Awareness of Lesbian and Gay Older Adults in Long-Term Care Settings

ABSTRACT

Due to societally imposed stigmatization, lesbian and gay (LG) older adults fear and prolong accessing long-term care (LTC) even though they need LTC at higher rates. Interventions that decrease negative attitudes toward LG older adults among LTC staff are a first step in addressing this problem. In this study, the influence of intergroup contact (IGC) on LTC staff members’ attitudes toward LG was explored through the use of storytelling as a training mechanism. An embedded mixed-method approach was employed to collect and analyze responses of 60 LTC staff who participated in a storytelling event. Participants completed pretests, posttests, and participated in audio-recorded group discussions. The findings showed that storytelling had a significant (p =0.001) and positive effect (d =0.57) on participants attitudes toward LG. Qualitative analysis revealed 90 codes, 13 process codes, and 4 themes: making meaning of stories, seeking understanding, application to LTC setting, and debating. When guided by IGC theory, storytelling has potential for positively influencing attitudes of LTC staff members toward LG older adults. There is a need for longitudinal work to further test this model.     

Reflections and Prospects of the Gerontological Social Work Training and Education: The AGESW Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program

ABSTRACT

The demand for professional training, mentorship, and research in the field of aging is expected to increase remarkably. Recent statistics indicate that less than 8% of social work students nationwide specialize in gerontology; however, a significant amount of social work graduates, regardless of their specialization at school, serve older adults in various health care settings. In addition, the aging populations that social work graduates serve are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. In order to address this issue, it is critical to support students and emerging scholars to not only become more competent in gerontological social work, but also engage in culturally competent research and practices. In this commentary, I described my experiences as a former fellow of the AGESW (Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work) Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program that fosters doctoral students in the field of gerontological social work. The program helps its fellows comprehend basic principles of doctoral education, develop strong professional networks with other colleagues and mentors across the country, and respect diversity in the population we serve as well as those within our own fellow group.