Minors: A Case Study

From a pediatric perspective, the family is an integral part of the healthcare team. Parents are the primary ally and resource in providing individualized care for their child. Even in adult patients, who they are is impacted by the relationships that they have. Serious or chronic illnesses and injuries affect the entire family. The family, then, becomes the patient, particularly when it is necessary to make lifestyle changes.

At Calvary Hospital the well-being of patients is a priority; it is their mission to provide adequate services to both patients and families This hospital has strong, dedicated and caring staff members who work as bereavement counselors. Calvary offers bereavement services for young children, adolescents, and adults. Grieving counseling is offered at no cost and is available for all groups including those who have lost a beloved one at Calvary or in the community. Social workers understand and are aware of the needs of families and patients; they strive to provide, assist and support people through an array of services offered at no cost. Through their efforts, social workers seek to help relieve the family’s stress and assist them in coping with the illness of their loved ones.

At one point in a person life, they will participated in a group whether it is part of a specific committee, therapy, or social group. In recent years, there has been a rise in counseling within a group forum veering from the tradition individual counseling. Therapists, physiologist, and counselors believe that form of counseling is beneficial to both counselor and client. This allows the counselor to help several clients at once rather than one at a time decreasing their strenuous workload and demanding work hours. This form of counseling integrate individual that share similar issues, struggles, and experiences into one forum. This not only allows the clients to learn from the therapist but from their fellow group members. The group experience

Unit Title: 521 Facilitate and development of effective group practice in health and social care or children and young people’s setting

Bowen,D.E, & Strickler,S. L. (2004). A good friend for bad times: helping others through grief. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortess

A location and time for the program’s meeting must be established, as well as the frequency of meetings. When choosing a location, it’s important to make sure that there will be privacy, comfort, and no distractions. The location must be appropriate for the size of the group. With such a large target audience, it will be necessary to have several different groups. The groups can be separated by grade, with about 20 – 25 students in each group. These groups would meet during their health classes during school hours, but without regular teachers and/or administrators in the rooms, so that the adolescents feel comfortable.

The group of participants meet regularly, allowing the participants share their experiences, hopes and resources with each other. There is telephone support available at all times. The confidentiality and anonymity of the families is respected at all time. This organization is different from

I chose the GriefShare support group because as nurses we will need to help our patients and their families with the grief process when a loved one passes away. On March 29, 2014, I met Claudette St. John, the group leader, at 6:45pm at Northwest Christian Church in Acworth, GA. Rick Baldwin also attended the meeting. The group meets from 7-8:30pm. Claudette shared that she has been doing grief support classes for the past 20 years and the past 3 years she has been doing GriefShare at Northwest Christian. She lost her teenage daughter in a car accident 20 years ago. She expressed that there really are not any rules, other than just respecting each individual. She tasks herself with keeping the meetings on track and has a democratic leadership style. GriefShare is a Christian based program consisting of 13 weekly session. Participants do not need to attend all 13 sessions, the sessions can also be done individually. A workbook is given to those that are participating in the program. GriefShare’s goal is to help those experiencing grief, work through the process and recognize the different aspects of grief that they may encounter.

My reflections of Chapter 11 of the Corey text discussing Groups in Community Settings, and more specifically working with adult populations, begins with the fact that these populations vary widely and are typically diverse in their makeup. Furthermore, the ability of professional counselors to work with a variety of adult populations utilizing a well-rounded set of clinically effective group experiences, techniques, and skills are paramount to facilitator efficacy. The multitude of diverse populations falling within the category of “adult groups” include, but are not limited to, a) women’s groups, b) men’s groups, c) domestic violence offender groups, d) sex offender groups, e) HIV/AIDS support groups, and f) older adult (elderly) groups

1There is an identified need for a community level hospital intervention that will focus on adolescents dealing with grief and loss. The public health groups in hospitals are aimed at disease prevention and health promotion for adults and families who are at high-risk. These groups only focus on members who have high-risk health conditions and risky lifestyle behaviors, but they do not address the idea of death resulting from these high-risk behaviors. Clearly, these public health interventions do not target adolescents who share the commonality of grief and loss. These groups ignore the effects of death and the role it can play in determining one’s actions. Both the public health group and the grief and loss

When a loved one dies, children handle their grief differently than adults, but they still often grieve very deeply in their own way. Much of the grief children experience comes from the fact that children often lose friends to a sudden death such as a traffic accident. The loss of older loved ones may be more anticipated, such as

The Cokesbury United Methodist Church grief support group follows a thirteen-week curriculum from GriefShare, however, new members can join in at any time as each week has a “self-contained” lesson. The topic for the week I attendee focused on the “why” of losing a loved one. Through following this curriculum, the group seeks to equip members with “essentials to recover from the hurt of grief and loss.” (GriefShare, n.d.) The group focuses on helping members rebuild their lives after they experience tremendous loss and grief through facing the challenge together. (GriefShare, n.d.)

In the past few years, community agencies have increasingly used groups since various groups have become a common feature of today's society. Some of the most common groups in today's society include groups for women, men, parent education, children, HIV/AIDS support, and those for reducing substance abuse. Due to the increased use of groups by communities, there are various approaches that have emerged including group counseling and group psychotherapy. Group counseling is a designed preventive and remedial approach to meet the needs of specific population in the society like women, men, the elderly, adolescents, and children. On the contrary, group psychotherapy is a re-education process of the present and past through conscious and unconscious awareness.

In adolescent psychotherapy, the therapist needs to be aware of the relationship adolescents have with each other and with their parents and caretakers. At this point in their lives, these relationships are often quite tumultuous (Holmes, Heckel, & Gordon, 1991). In addition to their social networks, the therapist also needs to be attentive to the manner in which the adolescent’s early experiences form their sense of self and respect the adolescent’s desire to be independent and be active in deciding the paths of their lives. With this in mind, the therapist will allow adolescent group members to have a more active role in participating and at times even taking a leadership role within the group sessions

In the future, sibling loss groups and other, more generalized grief groups will be established. Groups will be run primarily at GCC's planned counseling office, with an eye toward future expansion into public schools, health care centers, and senior citizen organizations. Groups in these community settings will be part of GCC's outreach program, and will be provided at no charge.