Passing the Baton: Principles and Implications for Transferring the Leadership of a Group

ABSTRACT

Poor practice in the transferring of groups abounds. This paper examines the process of transferring a group from one worker to another. Five concepts are discussed: giving early notice of the transfer; having one-on-one discussions between the arriving and departing workers; effecting the actual transfer; evaluating the group and establishing a new purpose and goals; and working through members' feelings and reactions to the transfer.     

Meaning making and playing in psychoanalytic therapies

Abstract

This paper explores Freud's idea of the transference as a playground, and Winnicott's assertion that psychotherapy is a subspecies of play. In the context of what those authors called “intermediate” space, a person discovers ways of interpreting or attributing meanings to inner feelings, thoughts, and being as he engages in dialogue with others. Whether with children or adults, psychoanalytic therapies have developed a specialized form of playing in the service of this necessary communication with another, as the case examples will illustrate.     

Bittersweet

ABSTRACT

For Uitoto communities in the borderlands of the Colombian Amazon, ordinary sociality depends on the effective rendering of sweet social relations from a universe of bitterly antisocial possibilities. Human personhood and kinship must be continually materialized through the transformation of bitter substances and sensations into sweet ones, and the incorporation of sweetness as a sensible quality of moral personhood. In a context where the sensorium is frequently transposed into a moral register, taste qualities both index and transmit the moral qualities of persons, and the bittersweet potentialities of kinship relations are mediated through botanical instruments of moral transformation. This paper explores the qualities of dulzura (sweetness) and amargura (bitterness) as key terms of value in the moral economy of Uitoto horticulturalists—experts in the management of bitter manioc (manihot escualenta) and bitter feelings alike.     

Experiences of Caregivers in a Dementia Simulation Program

Abstract

Objectives: Simulation-based training has been used in health care to increase clinical knowledge and skills and understanding the experience of others. There is a lack of research in exploring experiences of caregivers of people with dementia in a dementia simulation program and its potential benefits on caregivers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore experiences of caregivers of people with dementia who participated in a dementia simulation program, called Dementia Live?.

Methods: Fourteen caregivers were interviewed after participation in DL, and thematic analysis using NVivo 11 software was used.

Results: Three themes emerged, including: (i) the Dementia Live? as an eye-opening experience; (ii) the perceived benefits of the Dementia Live? on themselves; and (iii) recommendation of the Dementia Live? to other caregivers.

Conclusions: Dementia simulation programs such as the Dementia Live? may help caregivers to have more empathy, understand better about the behaviors and feelings of people with dementia, and to use strategies that can help when working with people with dementia. Further experimental research is needed to examine effectiveness of the dementia simulation program on caregivers and people with dementia.     

Client Suicide

Abstract

Mourning a suicide can be a difficult, complicated experience for family and friends. A therapist's bereavement can be even more complex. The multitude of feelings is often unspoken and/or unattended by colleagues, loved ones, and themselves. This article explores some defenses, both helpful and unhelpful, that one clinician used to process the event.     

Using the End of Groups as an Intervention at End-of-Life

SUMMARY

Support groups are an effective therapy at end-of-life. Patients with life-threatening illness and caregivers of the terminally ill have benefited from the mutual aid process provided by groups. Mutual aid is fostered by talking about feelings and developing group cohesion. Difficulty discussing the multiple issues of loss faced at end-of-life, including death and dying, can stifle sharing and impede this process. Group endings offer a unique opportunity to symbolically introduce these topics. This article explores the utilization of the group developmental stage of termination when facilitating groups for this population.     

Rituals and termination procedures

Abstract

The author discusses the therapeutic value and use of transition procedures in the ending phase of practice. These procedures can provide a vehicle for reaching the often contradictory and difftcult feelings that accompany termination. Knowledge about rituals is used to suggest a framework for understanding termination procedures. The author gives examples of procedures useful during termination and discusses potential pitfalls.     

Epistolary emotions: Exploring amorous hinterlands in 1870s southern Italy

Abstract

Drawing upon a chance find of a cache of love-letters penned by Italian women in the late nineteenth century, this article investigates an emotional landscape that is rarely documented in the archives: the amorous feelings of ordinary women. The writers were anonymous, literate and presumably fairly well-to-do women from various regions in the southern half of Italy. Each of them had an intensely emotional correspondence with a man who toured the provinces in his professional capacity as an equestrian artiste. We know much about the extent to which women were constrained in the nineteenth century, particularly in Mediterranean societies, but we know less about how they experienced and expressed their emotions within those constraints, or how those feelings and expressions reflected or circumvented prevailing cultural models. Ultimately, using a small but valuable sample of evidence, the article aims to show how sensitivity to emotions as an historical category can open new vistas on the subjective hinterlands of the past.     

Quality of Life among Compound Caregivers and Noncompound Caregivers of Adults with Autism

ABSTRACT

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are reaching adulthood and require some form of lifelong care. Many parents continue caring for their adult children with ASD for as long as physically possible. As parents age, many also may provide care for another loved one, such a spouse or parent. This study compares compound (those providing care for multiple loved ones) and noncompound parental caregivers (those providing care solely for an adult child with ASD) on six dimensions of quality of life (enjoys life, life is meaningful, ability to concentrate, accepts bodily appearance, satisfied with self, and frequency of negative feelings). Specifically, this study determined the extent to which compound and noncompound caregivers’ quality of life differed. The present study included 320 parents (age 50 or older) of adult children (18 or older) diagnosed with ASD who completed a web-based survey. T-tests for independent samples compared the six dimensions and overall quality of life between compound and noncompound caregivers. Results indicated that compound caregivers were less able to concentrate and had fewer negative feelings than noncompound caregivers. Further research is needed to determine the effects of caregiving on the multidimensional aspects of quality of life.     

Assessing Health Care Needs Among Street Homeless and Transitionally Housed Adults

ABSTRACT

This study examined the health services received and needed among homeless persons in Hillsborough County, FL (N = 823). Lifetime and current need and receipt of health services were assessed with a cross-sectional survey. Participants reported extensive lifetime and current needs for physical and behavioral health care services. Nearly a third of participants reported current unaddressed health problem(s); an inability to obtain needed health care; and feelings of unaddressed mental health issue(s) as well as substance abuse problem(s) in the past year. Future research on homelessness and health should focus on identifying different pathways to health and mental health services for this vulnerable population and the outcomes of these interventions.     

Using the Narrative Approach in Groups for Chemically Dependent Mothers

ABSTRACT

The powerful and healing effects of the narrative approach with the mothers at Family House, a residential treatment program for chemically dependent women, support the use of narratives in groups. Creative clinical techniques that facilitate the telling of stories are detailed. Eight themes were constructed from a retrospective review of group process notes, graduation ceremonies, and one author's written stories about clients. These repeated gender-associated themes include: no power, no sense of self, no joy, no honesty, no trust, no sense of community, no attention span, and no words for feelings. Directions for future research are identified.     

The Japanese Touch

ABSTRACT

Touch, as it is conventionally conceived, appears to be lacking in everyday Japanese intimate relationships. Here, the “touching spaces” between Japanese people are explored, challenging assumptions about closeness and intimacy. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Japan, this review suggests that “finite” conceptions of touch, body, and subjectivity limit our understanding of experiences of closeness in a Japanese cultural context. Instead, how the space between people is inhabited, and the feelings in this space, seems much more significant. In sum, Japanese experiences of touch, particularly in a familial context, should best be seen as a tangible and sensuous connection that is not just felt in the body. Focusing on two body practices, this review explores the connection and embodied experience of closeness in the Japanese family vis-à-vis co-bathing and co-sleeping. It ends with a summary of the design of these sites of intimacy and some ways in which communication and bonding can be enhanced.     

Group Work with First Episode Schizophrenia Clients

ABSTRACT

Group work with first episode schizophrenia clients is an effective way of improving ego functioning, building adaptive coping skills, and addressing the painful feelings associated with learning of this diagnosis. First episode schizophrenia clients are typically in their late teens to late twenties, and confront the cognitive disability, the stigma and the loss of social roles and statuses at a developmentally difficult stage of emotional growth. The dynamic processes by which cohesive groups reduce isolation, build self-esteem, and provide peer support are illustrated with case material. The group work consists of integrating psychoeducation with clients' concerns in order to provide optimal adjustment to the disease. The groups described in this article are structured within a continuing care team treatment model in a medical facility, but the group work discussed may be utilized in a variety of settings.     

Exploring the Concept of Moral Distress with Community-Based Researchers: An Australian Study

ABSTRACT

Community-based research (CBR) refers to an applied research methodology that is conducted in community settings in partnership between academic and nonacademic participants in research. This article reports on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with 11 Australian CBR researchers between 2008 and 2009. The interviews were designed to explore whether university-employed CBR researchers experience the particular phenomenon of “moral distress,” or feelings of helplessness to act in accordance with one's moral values due to systemic or institutional constraints. Study results found that the CBR researchers experienced unavoidable moral distress at varying levels of intensity related to blurred boundaries between settings, participants, and stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of this study, further research and enhanced professional development and training practices are recommended.     

An evaluation of a state hospital child guidance clinic 1

Abstract

The power of expressive writing needs to be recognized, valued, and promoted within the therapeutic community. As clinicians have grown to appreciate the importance of clients ‘ storying, we need to open up new forms for these stories to emerge. When clients write for themselves, they express their innermost thoughts and feelings, often in disguised, metaphoric form. If they choose to share these writings with a clinician, therapy can move more spontaneously and rapidly around core conflicts and empathic attunement is heightened. This article includes writings from people of varying ages and literary abilities, demonstrating the curative benefit of creative writing.     

Disappointment without prior expectation: a unifying perspective on decision under risk

The central idea of Disappointment theory is that an individual forms an expectation about a risky alternative, and may experience disappointment if the outcome eventually obtained falls short of the expectation. We abandon the hypothesis of a well-defined prior expectation: disappointment feelings may arise from comparing the outcome received with anyof the gamble’s outcomes that the individual failed to get. This leads to a new, general form of Disappointment model. It encompasses Rank Dependent Utility with an explicit one-parameter probability transformation, and Risk-Value models with a generic risk measure including Variance, providing a unifying behavioral foundation for these models. JEL Classification D80 . D81     

Women Coping With Chronic Disease: The Psychosocial Impact of Lupus

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this cross-sectional study (n = 92) was the further identification of the unique psychosocial challenges facing those living with lupus. Specifically, the study aim was to clarify which particular lupus symptomatology may result in which emotional states. The authors review relevant literature, discuss findings, and provide evidence-based recommendations for social workers providing services to patients with lupus. Key findings include the following: Frequent flare-ups resulted in the highest need for assistance with feelings of depression, anxiety, and socioeconomic challenges. Hair loss had the most significant impact on depression, anxiety, and socioeconomic coping. Being hospitalized in the past year for lupus also significantly impacted depression, anxiety, and socioeconomic coping. And, finally, the participants reported that having friends to rely on reduced their reported depression and anxiety. Fatigue from lupus was seen as the highest correlate of anxiety.