Psychosocial Group Work with Vulnerable Children presents a simple, accessible, and preventative approach to psychotherapeutic interventions. The authors explore how this form of group work can strengthen resilience and prevent an increase in antisocial behavioural tendencies among children. Based on a process of shared meaning communication, the book explains how professionals can help children to engage in in-group creative play and allow them to experience their self in relation to others. Castrechini-Franieck and Bittner draw on their experiences of working with children in groups, supplemented with therapeutic elements from Gestalt therapy and ontological psychoanalysis. This approach helps children to achieve a stable state of emotional well-being while improving their behaviour at school, along with their social skills. Psychosocial Group Work with Vulnerable Children will be a key reading for psychotherapists and other professionals working with vulnerable children including psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers.

Globally, children are highly vulnerable and unjustifiably affected by the difficulties afflicting society. They face social, physical, psychological, and emotional turmoil that stems from varying degrees of violence, abuse, neglect, abandonment, bereavement, and other psychosocial needs that often affect their education. Parental and other key stakeholders’ involvement is essential in ensuring that children develop to their full potential. Provision of Psychosocial Support and Education of Vulnerable Children highlights the plight of children and explores a transdisciplinary and multisectoral approach in providing sustainable psychosocial support to have quality education that is inclusive of 21st century skills. Childhood is an inimitable experience that is common to every individual child in the world irrespective of their ethnicity, culture, or any other arbitrary extractor we choose to apply. Covering topics such as life skills education, psychosocial support, and holistic integration, this book is an essential reference for education stakeholders, school personnel, private pre-primary schools, teacher training institutions, parents, pre-service teachers, human services professionals, researchers, and academicians.

This comprehensive handbook will be a major resource for all those involved in group work with children and adolescents. Bringing together the skills, practical experience and expertise of a wide range of contributors, it provides comprehensive analysis and practical guidance on all aspects of the subject under five broad headings: theoretical and practical issues, including structures and organisational aspects, conceptual frameworks and evaluation; developmental perspectives, including emotional development, empathy and prosocial development and the historical development of group psychotherapy; tools and techniques, including the use of play and games, art psychotherapy, relaxation, drama and interpretation; subjects and themes, including bereaved children, encopresis, victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse, young offenders and racial identity; and contexts and settings, including group work in schools, residential institutions, mental health services, youth services and therapeutic communities. The book will meet the needs of both beginners in the field, and those with experience.

In 2002, the Human Sciences Research Council was commissioned by the WK Kellogg Foundation to develop and implement a five-year intervention project focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in southern Africa. In collaboration with several partner organizations, the project currently focuses on how children, families and communities in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe are coping with the impact of HIV/AIDS. The aim of the project is to develop models of best practise so as to enhance and improve support structures for OVC in the southern African region as a whole. This report forms part of a series that examines the work undertaken as part of the Kellogg OVC Intervention Project from 2002 to 2005.

Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses describes, explores and promotes the power of groupwork for refugees and survivors of human rights abuses in a range of contexts. Drawing on multiple theoretical approaches, the book features chapters from practitioners running groups in different settings, such as torture rehabilitation services, refugee camps, and reception centres. The voices of participants demonstrate the variety, creativity, and value of group and community approaches for recovery. The editors have gathered chapters into three sections covering: community-based approaches; groups that work through the medium of "body and soul"; and group approaches that focus on change through the spoken word. The book will be relevant to those working in rehabilitation, community, mental health, and humanitarian fields and are interested in using groupwork as part of their services. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Explore the latest research and practice information in group work! Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is a collection of research and information presented at the Twentieth Annual International Symposium on Social Work with Groups. Resiliency issues are explored in relation to children, couples, managers, survivors of torture, poor women, HIV/AIDS affected youth, and other population groups. The contributors were keynote speakers and paper presenters at the symposium. They represent a wide range of fields of practice and experience. For social workers, students, educators, and practitioners, this volume examines how group work can improve resiliency in your community. Here's a sample of what you'll find inside: Keynote Speaker Jeremy Woodcock's experiences in his groundbreaking resiliency work with victims of torture Alex Gitterman's brilliant exposition of the notions of resiliency and vulnerability--he outlines the current thinking and puts it into a group work context case examples that illustrate resiliency in children a discussion of how residential settings can function like a 24-hour group and how to use that group effectively to strengthen the resiliency of the residents a way to use groups to help develop social and economic capital for poor women through investment clubs group themes and practice strategies for group work with couples who have differing HIV status Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency also contains chapters reflecting the personal experiences of the authors. One shares her transformation from a worker who did case work in a group into a social group worker. Another shares a reminiscence of a personal journey during her formative years as a budding group worker. From its description of how the use of group work principles and skills can benefit managers and programs to its challenge to group workers to incorporate some community work skills into their repertoire, Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is more than a fascinating read--it is a tool to help you keep abreast of the latest theory and practice in this ever-changing field.

Thorough, hands-on guidance for conducting group work in nonprofit, public, and for-profit agency settings. Because it improves access, is cost-effective, and can be modified to conform to evidence-based practice, group work has become the treatment approach of choice in a broad range of human service agencies. Written in an approachable manner that allows for direct translation of concepts into practice, Group Work: A Practical Guide to Developing Groups in Agency Settings provides a dual emphasis on clinical group skills along with a thorough understanding of agency systems that is necessary to meet the demands of today's practice settings. Written by two experts in the field, this book offers: Practical, detailed, ready-to-use group treatment plans, including group objectives, weekly session guidelines, discussion topics, activities, relevant research, and other essential tools Coverage of the three major types of agencies—nonprofit, public, and for-profit—supported by research and evidence-based treatments that reflect practitioners' actual experiences A unique agency perspective that includes coverage of agency structure, policies, history, staff, politics, informal and formal norms, and diverse client populations Group Work also contains a resourceful CD-ROM with over fifty different Group Profiles that can be customized to suit clients' unique styles and needs. Addressing a wide variety of psychological issues frequently encountered in therapy work with groups,¿the Group Profiles cover a range of clients across the lifespan—children, adolescents, adults, older adults, and the medically ill. Topics covered in these Group Profiles include anxiety, depression, divorce adjustment, substance abuse, foster care, trauma, chronic pain, anger management, hospice, weight management/obesity prevention, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and many more. Clear, concise, and current, Group Work: A Practical Guide to Developing Groups in Agency Settings is a useful resource from which professionals will gain the knowledge, skills, and awareness of the many intricacies involved in working with diverse groups within different agency settings. Its easy-to-follow presentation will enable all mental health professionals to successfully apply a variety of concepts, ideas, and skills into their group work practice. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Strengthening local humanitarian engagement demands not only rethinking dominant understandings of religion, but also revisiting the principles and practices of humanitarianism. This book articulates key aspects of the 'transborder discourse' necessary for humanitarian dialogue in the 21st century.

Group Work With Populations at Risk, Third Edition is a fundamental resource for practitioners in health and mental health settings and a comprehensive guidebook of group work skills. Geared toward students and professionals gaining a beginning understanding of groups, this volume describes how to work with vulnerable populations that include returning war veterans, Latino and Latina immigrants, women and men who were abused as children, children of divorce, and people struggling with substance abuse, AIDS, cancer, or chronic mental illness. Each chapter describes the population and reviews the relevant literature, identifies themes and practice principles, presents a case illustration, provides evaluation guidance, and refers readers to key references and web resources. Each one is designed to stand alone for easy reference, and overviews of skill building and evidence-based practice make this a timely, comprehensive resource for group leaders regardless of specialty.