SW 112. Generalist Practice II

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SW 112. Generalist Practice II

• Week 1-2

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Human Power and Social Power

• Ecosystem approach
• Strength-based approach
• Empowerment

Three basic perspectives in social work practice

• Working with people in ways that strengthen
  their
• sense of competence
• Linking people with needed resources
• Promoting organizational and institutional
  change
• Developing responsive social policies
• Engaging in research that demonstrates best
  practices

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Generalist Practice

• The definition should focus on the importance of
  multiple level interventions
• The definition of generalist practice should
  involve a knowledge base carefully chosen from a
  range of theories
• It should maintain a focus both on private
  issues and social justice concerns (Landon,
  1995, p. 1103)

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Group Work is Everywhere.Group work can be used
in a wide variety of settings and has relevance
for many disciplines
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Lets take a moment to think about

• What was/is your experience with groups?
• Identify common themes
• Why are groups important?
• Identify common themes

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Today

• Basic premises of group practice
• Types of group work
• Values and Ethics
• The knowledge of bases of group work
• Historical perspectives
• Influential Theories and therapeutic approaches

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3. Basic Premises of Group Practice

• Individual development occurs through group
  development
• Group process, or group development, transacts
  with this individual development
• Group process has its own therapeutic factors.
  The essence of these factors is the mutual aid
  system that evolves in the empowered group

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• Primary needs in group process are interpersonal,
  related to the growth of autonomy(I) and
  interdependence (WE) in relation to the purpose
  and content (IT) of the group
• The practitioner can either facilitate or
  obstruct this process
• The process needs Trust, Autonomy, Closeness and
  Interdependence among group members

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• Effective Group Work Three dimensions of group
  dynamics
• Communication
• Cohesion
• Group culture
• I We It Triangle/Ecosystem approach

IT
WE
I
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• Comparison of Task and Treatment groups (Table
  1.2, p.15)
• Treatment group 5 primary purposes
• Table 1.3 A typology of treatment groups
  (p.22)
• Support fostering mutual aid
• Education learning new skills and information
• Growth stressing self-improvement
• Therapy focusing on remediation and
  rehabilitation
• Socialization learning through doing -social
  skills (e.g. assertiveness training group),
  governance groups in residential settings, and
  recreational
• Task group 3 primary purposes
• Table 1.4 A typology of task groups
• Meeting client needs
• Meeting organizational needs
• Meeting community needs

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3. Values and Ethics

• Group Values
• Respecting the worth and dignity
• Respecting a persons autonomy
• Facilitating a persons participation in the
  helping process
• Maintaining a nonjudgmental attitude
• Ensuring equal treatment
• Practice Ethics
• Orientation and Informed consent
• Confidentiality
• Leader competence and training
• Are we doing each of the ethical principles
  discussed in the chapter?

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4.The knowledge of bases of group work

• Three Models of Social Group Work Table 2.1
  (p.49)
• Social goals model YMCA, Girls/Boys Scout
• Remedial model therapy focused
• Reciprocal model support and self-help
• Developmental model
• Mainstream model doing with
• Helping members develop a system of mutual aid
• Respecting group processes as powerful dynamics
  for change
• Helping members become empowered
• Helping members interdependency

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5. Historical perspectives

• The roots of group social work began in the
  settlement houses, the YMCAs and YWCAs, Boy
  Scouts and Girl Scouts, and Jewish centers in the
  1800s.
• These agencies focused on providing group
  programs for people considerednormal.
• Recipients of early group services came for
  recreation, informal education, friendship, and
  social action.
• 1). The emergence of group work 1800s to 1927
• The shift of large populations from rural to
  urban setting to support such industrialization
  and the immigrations from Europe, Mexico, and
  Asia
• The Settlement House - in 1886 Neighborhood Guild
  (NY) ? by 1900, more than 400 Settlement Houses
  Community Development/Organization

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2). Clarification of the Method 1928 to 1946

• The Great Depression and the War
• Groups as a vehicle for promoting social change
• The rise of professionalism and the increased
  effort to incorporate diversity into unity in the
  social work profession
• In 1936, the National Association for the Study
  of Group Work

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3). The diffusion of practice 1947 to 1963

• Grace Coyle group work as a method falls
  within the larger scope of social work as a
  method ? American Association of Group Workers
  (AAGW) as a professional membership organization
• The entry of group workers into rehabilitation
  settings
• Many branches of contemporary group psychotherapy
  models came from this period
• Small group dynamics Kurt Lewin Robert Bales

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4). The move to the generic method 1964 to 1979

• The War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Movements
  ? psycho-social perspectives ? importance of
  personal, interpersonal, and political
  empowerment in all groups
• CSWE mandated educating students about groups
• The Encyclopedia of Social Work (1971) covered
  social group work under four models- social
  goals reciprocal remedial and developmental

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5). 1979 and after

• Person-in-environment approach Urie
  Bronfenbrenner (1979)
• Empowerment Barbara Solomon (1976)
• Strength-based approach Dennis Saleebey
  described the strengths perspective as an
  alternative way of viewing people
• Evidence-based group work
• Revitalization of group work
• Weakening of group work
• Do you believe that group work will have a
  resurgence in popularity? If so, why?

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6. Influential Theories and therapeutic
approaches

• System theory
• Bales- instrumental problems and socioemotional
  problems
• Group as a whole that arise from the interaction
  of individual members
• Psychodynamic theory
• Object relations transference/countertransferenc
  e
• Here-and-now approach common irrational beliefs
  ? restructuring thinking
• Learning theory
• Clear/specific goal, evaluation (measureable
  outcomes), reinforcement ? behavioral
  modification psycho-educational groups
• Field theory
• Human interactions are driven by both the people
  involved and their environment B f (P, E)
• Force-field analysis group dynamic cohesion
• Social exchange theory
• Rewards and costs Outcomes the rewards (from a
  relationship) the costs (the energy invested in
  a relationship)

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• What theories influence your social work
  practice?
• If you develop your own theory for group
  practice, what would the theory be like?