SWK292 S1: Overview of group work

GROUP WORK PRACTICE

Definition

Goal-directed activity with small treatment & task groups aimed to meet socioemotional needs & accomplish tasks. Each individual influences and gets influenced by others

Group task content/ activities to be conducted by members

Socioemotional needs the relational & emotional needs of members are to be satisfied in group session

Group workers

Purpose: Aim to support or educate members, helping them to socialise & achieve personal growth or provide treatment for problems & concerns

Uses a generalist practice view

Uses specialised knowledge & skills based on comprehensive need assessment of members

Uses evidence based approach to practice principles incorporated with critical thinking skills

focuses on individual members, group as a whole & group's environment

Classifying groups

Formed groups

Natural Groups family members, peer groups. They are not planned nor constructed

Treatment group

Task Groups

come together via outside influences

primary focus is on helping people & meeting their socioemotional needs. Aimed at promoting changes in individuals. 6 Types & purposes: (1)Support (2)Education (3)Growth (4)Therapy (5)Socialisation (6)Self help

Primarily focused on fulfilling tasks to meet organisational community or client needs. The 3 main purposes are (1) meeting client needs (2) meeting organisational needs (3) meeting community needs

Advantages & disadvantages

Advantages & disadvantages

Advantages: free-flowing participation is often highly desirable. Group discussion, deliberation & decision making are beneficial for generating alternative plans for problem solving & making decision Disadvantages Group problem solving involves more time than individual problem solving & The presence of others may interfere with effectiveness of problem solving

Advantages empathy, mutual hep & support, exchange of feedback, normalisation & opportunities for new behaviours Disadvantages Vulnerable to breaches to confidentiality

VALUES & ETHNICS OF GROUP WORK PRACTICES

Practice values

Group work values

Values that worker brings in

Practice Ethics

Ethical principles

  • Worker ensures follow up of members to ensure group meet their needs
  • Worker help members develop & pursue therapeutic goals
  • Members to be treated fairy & equitably
  • Worker not to exploit members for their own gain
  • Informed consent
  • Leader competence & trainning
  • appropriate conduct of group meetings
  • Worker's personal value system can affect how they practice
  • Participation of positive relations among all people
  • Mutual decision making & cooperation
  • Importance of individual initiation
  • Value of high individualisation
  • Group work practice is influenced by a system of personal & professional values
  • Values are beliefs of what one should behave
  • Value influence the methods used to accomplish group and individuals goals

WIDELY USED GROUP WORK MODELS

Remedial

Reciprocal

Social Goals

System Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

Learning theory

Field Theory

Social Exchange Theory

Constructivist & Narrative Theories

Empowerment Theory

Focuses on restoring or rehabilitating individuals by helping them change their behaviour

  • Focuses on socialising members to democratic societal values
  • Used by community organisation & developmental agencies to change societal norms & structure to improve citizen's social welfare
  • Refered to as interactional model or the mutual aid model
  • Emphasis on the reciprocal relationship that exist between members & society
  • Attempts to understand the group as a system of interacting elements
  • Four major functions: (1) Integration (2)Adaptation (3)Pattern maintenance (4)Goal attainment
  • Important influence on group work practice
  • Group members act out in the group unresolved conflicts from early life experiences
  • Group leader will use transference & countertransference reaction to help members work through unresolved conflicts by explaining past behaviours patterns & linking them to current behaviour
  • Ignore the importance of group dynamics
  • Emphasis on environmental contingencies & de-emphasis of free will
  • Emphasis on specific goals, contracting, Influence of environment on group & its members, step by step treatment planning
  • Behaviours of group members can be explained by (1) Behaviour become associated with stimulus (2) Operant conditioning (3) Bandura social learning theory: learning take place through observation & vicarious reinforcement or punishment
  • Emphasis on group as a whole
  • Views group as constantly changing due to the forces at work. These forces include (1) Roles (2) Norms (3) Power (4) Cohesion (5) Consensus (6) Valence
    Members will not change their own behaviour unless they see their behaviour as how others see them. To enable them to see, group workers use (1) role play (2) simulation
  • Focuses on the behaviour of individual members
  • People interact in groups where each attempt is used to maximise rewards & minimise punishments
  • Group behaviour is analysed by observing how individual members seek rewards while dealing with the sustained social interaction occurring in group
  • Focuses on how members create & maintain realities through life stories & subjective experiences
  • Member's self conception are imbedded in the way they socialise & experience & meanings are created out of them
  • Intrinsically related to narratives & constructivist theories as by understanding one's life story, group members then can be empowered to take on new ways of behaving
  • Worker focuses on members' strengths
  • Members empower each other & reframe each other stories