CASE

Jill is a social worker at a community mental health center in an urban area. She provides individual and group therapy in an outpatient forensic program. Most of Jills clients have histories of committing violent crimes, and most have spent time in prison. Clients in the program have co-occurring disorders of mental illness and substance abuse, which are contributing factors to their criminal behaviors. Jills program is designed to help clients cope with their mental health and substance abuse issues in order to prevent future crime and in order to help them achieve a higher quality of life.

One of Jills groups is for female offenders with a history of violent behavior. This group has 10 members. Jill prefers to have fewer members (e.g. 7) but these clients are court-ordered to her program. Rarely do all members show up for group. The group started five sessions ago. It is an open-ended therapy group that meets once a week for two hours. Due to the involuntary nature of the group, turnover in group is expected to be low. On most days, 5-7 women attend group. A core of 4 women have attended all of the first 5 sessions.

Jill begins each session by asking the women how they are doing and if anyone would like to share what has been happening since the last group. She believes this helps members assume ownership of their treatment. For the past two weeks, members have not spoken in response to the intervention. Jill has the sense that one member, Tomika, would like to talk, but Tomika does not do so. Jill remembers a few weeks ago that Tomika began discussing her history of incest and its effects on her. Jill remembers that Tomika abruptly stopped talking in the middle of her story. She broke eye contact with group members, including the leader. Another member of the group, Carol, appeared to be staring very intently at Tomika, with a smile that Jill perceived as odd.

Jill decided this week to conduct a check-in (round robin) with each member to get each to share at least some information and to alleviate some of the tension in the group. Jill decided to start the check in so that it ended with Carol, the woman who stared at Tomika when Tomika was talking. Jill asked the members to rate how they were feeling and doing this past week on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being fantastic and 1 being miserable. The majority of the women reported numbers between 3 and 6. Tia, an African American woman coping with Bipolar I Disorder, reported a 2. Tomika reported a 2 as well. Carol reported a 9.5. When the round stopped, Jill asked Tia if she would share more about what was going on that she scored so low. Scanning the group, Jill noticed several members looking at Carol and shifting in their chairs. Tia looked over at Carol before talking. Carol then said well, I dont think we should talk about people who had bad weeks. I mean, I had a great week and I think I want to talk about it. Why do we always have to focus on the garbage? I mean, my week was messed up in some ways, but thats life, why should we talk about it, you know. Its over and done with.

Jill thanked Carol for speaking up and told her that while Jill understood her feelings about discussing stressful events and that it can be painful to do so that Jill believed sometimes people needed to get things off their chest or to get feedback about things they can change. Brianna, a 22-year-old African American woman with a history of being sexually abused, then began to laugh uncontrollably. Others in the group avoided eye contact with Jill and shifted in their chairs. Brianna said that she had the funniest thing happen to her during the week and that something Carol said reminded her about it. Brianna got up from her chair and started to do an impression of her funny friend. Tomika then began to cry. As Tomika started to cry, Tia clenched her fists, and Carol started to get up as if to leave group.

Jill asked for everyone to sit back down and take a few deep breaths. Jill asked members to relax a few minutes. She said that it appeared that the group is going through a hard time and that it was important to figure out what was going on. Jill then asked the group to take a few minutes to sit silently and to try to get yourself together. All members sat down and were quiet, avoiding eye contact with each other and the leader.

Adapted from Zastrow, Social Work Practice with Groups (2004). Chicago: Nelson Hall.

Group Dynamics Case Application. Consider the following case & answer each question below.

1:What would it be like to lead such a group? What concerns would you have? 25 points

2: Describe how you would intervene with such a group to enhance its effectiveness. Include attention to issues related to planning and beginning such a group that might prevent potential obstacles the effectiveness of group. 25 points

3:Discuss how you would help the group move forward after the silence. Do you think that Jills leadership style is effective? 25 points

4: What is your sense of the group dynamics and the group culture of this group? In other words, assess the

communication and interaction pattern in the group. How are these patterns affecting the groups

effectiveness? Also offer an assessment of the groups norms and roles (both overt and covert). What

hypotheses do you have that would help explain the nature of this groups dynamics and culture?