Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions: Principles,Practice, and Pitfalls by Hartley,P., & Kennard,D. (Eds.)

The topic of discharge from inpatient psychiatric units is written about frequently. However, inpatient groups which focus on discharge issues are rarely discussed. This paper briefly reviews the literature on discharge issues groups with the finding that while long-term psychiatric units focus on patients' feelings about leaving the hospital, existing acute adult psychiatric unit groups do not. An alternative model, the Discharge Issues Group which does allow for patients to express their feelings about discharge, is presented. Two case examples are cited to illustrate how the group functions.