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Support Group: Parents of Children and Adolescents with Mental Illness

This paper should follow the 7th edition APA guidelines for paper formatting, writing style, bias free language, citation and reference lists. The paper should be proofed for grammar, spelling and typos.

Each student will develop a proposal for a therapy group to be facilitated by a social worker at an agency. The therapy group will be a support group for parents of children and adolescence with mental illness.

As you describe the plan for the group be sure to explain the rationale for decisions made in each of the planning areas. You must support the decisions with relevant literature from the required course readings including the following book:

Shulman, L. (2016). The skills of helping individuals, families, groups, and communities (8th ed.). Brooks/Cole. ISBN-13: 978-1-111-5215-7.

Optional: Articles or books that may be helpful include

Root, J. (2017). Psychoeducational Groups. In Handbook of social work with groups. C. Garvin & L. Guttierrez (Eds). New York, NY: Guilford.

Corcoran, J. (2009). Groups in social work: A workbook. Chapter 3- Setting up groups, pp. 21-46

You can use Hope Health Systems agency https://hopehealthsystems.com to answer Part III (the context of the agency).

You must locate and review three articles that describe groups similar to the one you are suggesting. For example, you might be proposing a group for Hispanic mothers of children with special needs that will be a mutual aid group. It is fine if one or two of the articles are psycho- educational groups, as long as you address in your paper the rationale for your choice of a mutual aid group and not a psycho-educational group.Citations should be in the text of the paper, as well as a reference list at the end of the paper, using correct APA reference style. The assignment should be approximately 8-10 double-spaced typed pages.

The paper should include: `

I.The Need for the Group (approximately 2 pages)Describe the unmet need(s) of the client population that this group will be addressing. Identify the bio-psycho-social issues of clients coming to the host agency that could be met by participation in a group. Include Census or other data that supports this need in the larger12population. As part of this process, be sure to include the relevant literature that supports your understanding of client needs and how a group modality can address these needs.

II.The Group Concept (approximately 1 page)

In conceptualizing the group, clearly state the purpose of the group and how the purpose connects to the unmet need(s) described above. Describe the type of group that you are proposing. For example,

▪Support and stabilization (life crisis - divorce,

 ▪Growth and education (developmental challenges - social skills

▪Recapitulation and restitution (i.e. insight groups/play therapy

 ▪Task and action (committee, organization).

 Describe the specific issue(s) the group will address and the goals of the group (what is the desired outcome(s).

III. The Group & Its Fit within the Agency Context. (approximately1 page)

How will the proposal for the group get communicated to the staff?

What issues or concerns might the staff have about this new group?

What would be the process for finding out about these issues or concerns? How might they be addressed?

How will confidentiality within the group be dealt with in relation to other staff at the agency? Will clients be in other types of intervention within the agency and if so what will be the communication process between staff involved?
Will any support be needed from the agency to run this group and how will this support be obtained? e.g. refreshments, referrals, child care, space?

IV. Description and Design of the Group (approximately 1 page)

In describing and designing the group include the size of the group, eligibility criteria including the age of members, gender, socio-economic status, their ethnicity and other factors you would consider pertinent to the group’s design and functioning (e.g. diagnosis, capacity for insight, past experience with groups...). What will be the structure of the group and will it be open ended or closed ended in terms of membership.

How will you recruit new members (self-referrals, agency referrals, flyers, letters...)? What might a flyer say if you were to use a flyer? What will be the selection process? Who will select the members?

Where will the group meet? What will the physical set up be for the group? How frequently and for what length of time will the group meet? Will you serve food? Why or why not?

Will there be individual interviews conducted with potential group members? If so, what will be asked about, and what can be learned from these meetings? If a person is deemed not appropriate for the group, how will this be communicated and what will the follow-up be for those who are deemed ineligible? Will there be any type of orientation process? If so, describe.

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V. Contract (approximately 1 page)

What type of contract will there be for the group as a whole? What will be the non-negotiable rules, if any? Are there any fees for participating? What will be the negotiable rules and how will the facilitators develop these with the group?

VI. Outline Plan for Group Sessions (approximately 1 page)
If you are proposing a mutual aid group, what are some of the themes that you assume will

emerge within the group over time.

If you are proposing a psycho-educational group, will you use an already developed curriculum that has been used and tested by others? If you plan on developing your own curriculum, provide an outline of the topics that you will want to be covered.

VII. Facilitators (approximately 1 page)

How do you perceive the role (s) of the group facilitator?
If you were to be one of the facilitators, what skills would you want to develop as a group leader? What do you think some of the challenges might be for you?

VIII. Concluding paragraph.

What you have learned about the value of pre-planning for effective group outcomes.

Expert Solution

Gathering people in groups for a mutually beneficial purpose is a natural tendency for human beings. Through groups, individuals can achieve various objectives and associate with each other productively and innovatively. Sometimes people need groups to survive and thrive, an interdependence visible in all group types, from task-oriented to therapeutic ones. For effectiveness, group leaders must recognize the potency and power of these gatherings and preplan to be prepared for all the stages of the group’s development. They also must use the appropriate skills to help with the effective and smooth development of the group to achieve its set objectives. In this case, the proposed group is a support group for parents of children and adolescents with mental illness. Often, parents are the primary caregivers of their mentally ill children, and they forget to take care of themselves while simultaneously caring for their children. With the increased prevalence of mental illness in the United States, the issue is about to be exacerbated hence the need for planning for this support group. Therefore, using relevant literature and articles to plan the formation of a support group for parents with mentally ill children and adolescents under different facets is eye-opening to the importance of preplanning for effective group outcomes.

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