Group Intervention Evaluation

INTERVENTION EVALUATION: GROUP PROCESSES

Size and Composition. The group consisted of 9 people (3 men and 6 women), all of whom had been diagnosed with some form of schizophrenia. Group members received group therapy at Didi Hirsch, a community mental health agency which offers a variety of community health services, only one of which is group psychotherapy. All group members were taking prescribed medication (psychotropic drugs) which they were required to take daily or else risk hospitalization for a psychotic episode.

There is a substantial body of literature that recommends group therapy for use with schizophrenics. For example, O'Brien (1983) has noted that through group therapy, schizophrenics can learn to overcome their basic mistrust. Also, Kaplan & Sadock (1983) report that group therapy has been found to assist schizophrenics with taking their prescribed medication. Further, Alden, Weddington, Jacobson & Gianturco (1979) as well as Donlon, Rada & Knight (1973) have reported that schizophrenics do well in group settings and enjoy the group interaction. Finally, Kanas (1986) has noted that schizophrenics actually benefit from group therapy more than for individual therapy.

The group structure was open; that is, new members were always welcome to the group while current members were free to leave the group by their own volition. One reason for allowing the group to have an open structure was the findings reported by Kaplan and Sadock (1983) that a va

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ir medication. Also, they voiced resistance to the concept of discontinuing medication and pointed out to Oscar that his behavior seemed to have deteriorated since he had stopped taking his medicine. A second very important element in the group was the facilitation of self-disclosure. A good deal of existing literature had shown self-disclosure to lead to increase in group cohesiveness (Bloch, Crouch & Reibstein, 1981; Query, 1970, Johnson & Ridner, 1974; Kirsher, 1976) which, in turn, produces positive therapeutic outcome. In this regard, both the psychologist and the social worker intern observed that when they modeled self-disclosure for clients, it was particularly effective in getting them to open up, an observance that is supported by existing literature (e.g. Shulman, 1984). Functioning of the Group According to Yalom (1985: 300-310), a group goes through three hierarchial stages of functioning: (l) the initial orientation stage evidenced by hesitant participation, a search for meaning and issues of dependency; (2) the conflict stage evidenced by a preoccupation with issues of dominance, control and power; and (3) a stage of group cohesiveness evidenced by a sort of group consciousness in which there is a common goal

Category: Psychology - G