The Use of the Group and Group Work Techniques in Resolving Interethnic Conflict

This article explores the area of interethnic conflict and, based on a case study involving a dialogue group of American Arabs and Jews, proposes a conflict resolution model that, combined with group process and group techniques, might be used to reduce tension and promote understanding among other ethnic groups in conflict. The model was successfully used in Los Angeles to engage the disputants in social action during a five year period and shows promise of being employed in a new form of "intergroup work."     

Group Work with Families

Family practice is a special case of social work with groups. This practice especially requires an ethnic and multicultural perspective. Such a framework is presented in this paper with focus on group work with families in Singapore. Singapore is an economically developed East Asian nation populated predominately by three ethnic groups: Chinese, Malay, and Indian. These groups have experienced a wider culture in transition, affecting their family group culture. Through use of the sensitizing conceptual frameworks of family cultural reality and value orientation theory, this paper presents a multicultural perspective and applies it to group work with families in Singapore. The framework used is deemed applicable to practice with the family and other small groups in similar multicultural contexts wherein members experience the effects of swift social change.     

高职院校“双师型”教师队伍的内涵和特点新探

根据国家对高职院校的新要求,结合高职院校人才培养目标,从着力优化高职院校师资队伍结构和提高人才培养质量出发,针对"双师型"教师和"双师型"教师队伍的内涵进行了新的界定,同时提出了高职院校"双师型"教师队伍的特点,即相对稳定性与不断流动性相统一、结构优化性与功能互补性相统一、良好适应性与较强创新性相统一、文化先进性与管理科学性相统一。还从组织文化、人才工程、科学管理、保障体系等四个方面提出了高职院校"双师型"教师队伍建设"强化观",为精心打造"双师型"教师队伍、提高高职院校教育教学质量创造有利条件。     

Developing and Sustaining Group Work Services

This paper identifies eleven interrelated elements that need to be considered in organizing and sustaining group services in an agency. An approach to building group services is seen as needing to be both systemic and systematic-i.e., every element of the agency system must be analyzed and assessment and implementation must be systematically done. The paper presents a set of interrelated contextual and programmatic factors and an approach to analyzing their individual, reciprocal, and collective effect on building group services in a range of agency settings.     

"Bridging the Gap": New Relationships between Primary Care Groups and Local Authorities

Current policy places great emphasis on the development of "partnerships", particularly between NHS and local authority services, with the aims of increasing service coordination and delivery and improving health. To this end, primary care groups (PCGs), at the forefront of NHS organizational developments, are required to include a social services representative on their governing boards; similarly, primary care trusts (PCTs) have a social services representative on their executive committees. Drawing on a representative longitudinal national survey of English PCGs, the paper evaluates the contribution of these new governance arrangements to the development of inter-agency partnerships. Despite poor histories of collaboration and some major organizational barriers, there are some signs of progress, with social services representatives playing an active part in PCG affairs and having clear lines of communication about PCG matters with their employing authorities. Equally significantly, PCGs have also quickly established a wide range of contacts directly with other local authority services and departments. However, these early gains risk being limited by traditional professional inequalities between social work and medicine and, in particular, by the prospect of further organizational upheaval as PCGs merge with each other and/or acquire trust status.     

Responsibility Group Counseling

Counseling those experiencing interpersonal alienation can be fruitfully accomplished in groups in which members learn to assume responsibility for themselves and others. This article presents a "responsibility group counseling" methodology for social work practice with groups. The approach is presented in terms of its principles, structure, techniques, and outcomes. The emphasis is placed on using the groundrules of this group counseling model.     

Multiple Family Group Therapy for Families with Children Placed in Out-Of-Home Care in a Chinese Context

Since the 1980s, the family-centered approach has been widely adopted in the west (e.g., the United States) as an approach to serving children living in an out-of-home care context. In comparison, in Hong Kong, out-of-home care services tend to be child-centered and child-protection oriented. This article (1) examines the child welfare service, specifically out-of-home care services, in Hong Kong and (2) makes the case for integrating family-centered out-of-home care services for children. Three vignettes are presented that demonstrate the use of Multiple Family Group Therapy (MFGT) to promote family-centered practice. The article concludes with a discussion of challenges and recommendations related to a shift to family-centered practice.     

Asian/Pacific-Americans and Group Practice

Although Asian/Pacific-Americans encounter a multitude of life stressors and have significant mental health needs, many avoid the use of psychotherapeutic services. This article argues that group practice can be efficacious in addressing their mental health needs if therapists appreciate and understand the cultural factors and historical background of these clients. Cultural and historical considerations are discussed within the context of the strategies (c.g. group content and structure, composition, and dynamics) to use.     

Safety and Comfort,Content and Process: Facilitating Open Group Work with Men Who Batter

Based on the open group format of the McGill Domestic Violence Clinic this paper discusses four important concepts in treatment group work with men who batter: safety, comfort, content and process. This paper explores why men who batter might wish to avoid treatment groups as well as what might encourage them to attend these groups regularly. Interventive techniques such as "the comfort/discomfort level." "empathic projection," use of humor and the "process statement" are defined and highlighted by case examples. The paper concludes by suggesting what benefits the treatment group client takes with him when he moves on from the group.     

Environmental issues affecting elder abuse victims in their reception of community based services

This study examined the dominant factors that predict the utilization of services by 129 identified elder abuse victims who reside in the community. Utilizing the Andersen Model, services accepted or rejected were analyzed from individual, family and environmental perspectives. Results indicated that service utilization is related to three "need" factors: (1) Victim has cognitive and ADL impairments, (2) Victim has poor health status (self rated), and (3) The abuser is financially dependent on the victim and is also the primary caregiver of the victim. "Enabling" factor (1) Victim lives alone. "Predisposing" factors (1) Abuser is substance abuser and (2) Abuser is female. A great proportion of the elder abuse victims in this study accepted services from an agency that provided a single entry point into the service system and had highly trained personnel utilizing a case management approach.     

Group Work with Natural Parents in Permanency Planning

Group work with parents of children in foster care has good potential as a complement to casework services in permanency planning. An underused social work service in child welfare, group work has rarely been provided to natural parents. It can be utilized differentially along the foster care continuum from needs identification through aftercare to provide parents information, support and training specific to foster care. Reports of group work services for abusing parents, parents of children in residential treatment and special programs for natural parents provide relevant information for design of group work with natural parents. An example of a group of parents whose children are in foster home placement is presented. Special considerations for providing group services to natural parents are highlighted. Group work appears to have positive effects on the providing agency as well as on parent group participants. Issues regarding group work in permanency planning include the risk of its misuse through agency-imposed agendas and/or agency determined timetables for individual and group development. It will be helpful to study what group services with which parents at which points in the foster care continuum assist permanency planning efforts.     

TYPOLOGY OF GROUP WORK WITH "DRUNK AND PROUD" ALCOHOLICS

Classification systems are helpful guides for more effective case planning and management. As an empirical example, observation of groups of male alcoholics led to development of a typology of defensive behaviors of the "Drunk and Proud" alcoholic in a treatment group, including related group leader techniques for control of the behaviors.     

An alternative response to "The best interests of the child thesis: some thoughts from Australia"

Many of the concerns about recent changes in child welfare services practice in Australia have also been raised in the USA. Although it certainly may be the case that mandatory reporting is causing a broadening of child welfare services in Australia, close data-informed scrutiny suggests that this is not the case in the USA. Further, there are positive alternatives to overly intrusive child welfare service interventions that are arising in the USA. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that too little protection rather than too much intrusion remains the more significant problem in the USA; this may also be true elsewhere. The quality and range of services certainly determines whether intrusion is helpful to children and families. In some cases, for example life-threatening health problems that parents will not or cannot treat, engaging the assistance of child welfare services should not be ruled out for ideological reasons.     

An alternative response to "The best interests of the child thesis: some thoughts from Australia"

Many of the concerns about recent changes in child welfare services practice in Australia have also been raised in the USA. Although it certainly may be the case that mandatory reporting is causing a broadening of child welfare services in Australia, close data-informed scrutiny suggests that this is not the case in the USA. Further, there are positive alternatives to overly intrusive child welfare service interventions that are arising in the USA. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that too little protection rather than too much intrusion remains the more significant problem in the USA; this may also be true elsewhere. The quality and range of services certainly determines whether intrusion is helpful to children and families. In some cases, for example life-threatening health problems that parents will not or cannot treat, engaging the assistance of child welfare services should not be ruled out for ideological reasons.     

明清“水田彝”的国家化进程及其族群性的生成:以四川冕宁白鹿营彝族为例

本文主要利用四川冕宁白鹿营彝族文书和《冕宁档案》,试图揭示明清“水田彝”的国家化进程及其族群性的生成。明万历后期,为抵抗叛乱,部分大凉山彝人被宁番卫招募到平坝充当营兵,形成白鹿营等彝族聚落。入清后,白鹿营彝人随土司的招立再次被纳入国家体制,但直到乾隆晚期,其聚落形态、权力格局和风俗文化等方面仍保持着较强的独立性。此后,随着移民的到来、保甲的编设及文教的推广,白鹿营彝族的独立性逐渐弱化,国家认同感日益增强,最终形成有别于高山彝族的“水田彝”。明清“水田彝”的国家化,既促进了边疆的稳固,同时也生成了其独特的族群性。     

A racial comparison of Family Group Decision Making in the USA1

This study examined Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) among a nationally representative sample of African‐American and White children investigated for maltreatment in the US. While FGDM was developed for work with ethnic minority families, there is no research on how this is being carried out in the US, where African‐American children are overrepresented in child welfare services. The study views racial differences in child, caregiver and maltreatment characteristics related to FGDM; composition of FGDM meetings; service referrals and receipt; and service satisfaction. Data are from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐being (NSCAW), a study of 5501 children ages 0–14. Current analyses include African‐American and White children (n= 4129). Stratified, bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used. Results showed that while race was not related FGDM receipt, different characteristics lead to FGDM among African‐American and White families. Surprisingly, caregivers report feeling no more involved in decision‐making in association with FGDM. FGDM is provided at low rates overall (10%) and less frequently among White caseworkers. Child access to mental health services increases in relation to FGDM. Implications are discussed.     

Science and society: some "made-in-Canada" options for improving integration

In this article, the authors describe relatively recent efforts by scientific research agencies to promote, through various funding programs, the integration of social sciences and humanities with the natural sciences. This "integrated" approach seeks to study science through a broader interdisciplinary lens in order to better anticipate, understand, and address its ethical, legal, and social implications. The authors review the origins and evolution of this trend, as well the arguments which have been formulated by both proponents and critics of integration. By using Genome Canada's "GE(3)LS" Research Program as a case study, the authors discuss the successes and continuing challenges of this model based on evaluation results available to date. The authors then go on to examine and compare three possible models for improving the future success of the GE(3)LS research program, including: 1) enhancing the current integrated research approach through incremental refinements based on concrete evidence and lessons learned; 2) promoting greater interaction and synergy across GE(3)LS research projects through a deliberate, systematic and coordinated "hub and spoke" approach; and 3) taking a broad programmatic approach to GE(3)LS research by creating a central resource of available expertise and advisory capacity.     

Transforming Social Group Work Learning into Competencies for Interprofessional Teams

This article describes how social work and social group work strategies are used to enhance social work student participation in an interprofessional education program (IPE) that includes social work and five health care disciplines. Concurrently, social work students take part in a small group to assist them in the application of their social group knowledge to their IPE experience. Interprofessional collaborations between social work and health care can work toward alleviating health inequalities and poor access to health services. Social work has a crucial and significant role within these teams because of the profession’s focus on individual well-being, within the context of their social environment and support systems.     

Flipping the Equation: The Need for Context-Focused Group Work Education

For many students of social work, traditional group work curriculum promotes the development of mutual aid as the criterion for success in a group. However, a dichotomy exists between a reduction in agency-sanctioned mutual aid–focused groups and the expanded use of groups to deliver services. The contrast between MSW students' expectations and the practice realities they face is particularly challenging for classroom instruction. This article proposes a context-focused approach to teaching an elective in social group work, which links theories and skills to organizationally specific practice contexts. This approach encourages students to engage in critical reflection of practice through consistent interaction between foundational concepts and practice realities.     

The Importance of the Peer Group in the Israeli Kibbutz for Adult Attachment Style

This research was presented at the 2005 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Atlanta, Georgia. The study is based on Yona Weiss's Ph.D. dissertation at the Smith College School for Social Work, directed by Robert Shilkret. We thank Joan Berzoff and Joyce Everett, members of the dissertation committee and all the adults from the kibbutzim who participated in the research. In this study we investigated attachment styles of kibbutz‐raised adults as related to their childhood experiences (392 adults from 50 kibbutzim). Various instruments were used to assess parental and group relations in childhood, adult attachment style, and adult attachment to groups. We found that there were similar distributions of attachment styles among those participants from familial and communal sleeping arrangements. Caring parents and peer groups were associated with secure adult attachment; further, caring peer groups were associated less frequently with insecure styles than less caring peer groups were. Caring peer groups partly compensated for less adequate care by parents. Higher overprotection by the peer group was associated with later social anxiety/ambivalence and personal preoccupation. We raise the question of how the child peer‐group supports or harms adult attachment style.