Support Group Experience Assignment/Paper

Support Group Experience Assignment/Paper

Purpose: Support groups are a place for people to give and receive both emotional and

practical support as well as to exchange information. The purpose of this assignment is to

help the student understand and evaluate group dynamics, group facilitation, and group

processing.

Assignment: The student will participate in an observational Support Group Experience.

This experience usually lasts 1½ - 2 hours. Choose a Support Group that meets the course

objectives, (i.e., Caregiver group, NAMI-National Alliance for the Mentally Ill support

groups, Compassionate Friends-Grief support groups, Family-Survivors of Suicide support

groups, cancer support groups). Each student is responsible for contacting the selected

facilities/agencies and arranging the

participant-observer

experience. Call the Group Leader

to obtain permission to attend. [Be professional and state that you are an advanced practice

psychiatric mental health nursing student wishing to gain knowledge about the group and

that this is a course assignment.] Maintain professional appearance and behavior while in

groups – remember you are a guest and represent your Nursing program.

Write a 4 page (excluding title page, abstract and reference pages) paper on this

experience. Follow the following criteria:

 

The support Group meeting I attended was Depression Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), South Florida.  Via zoom meeting on Feb 19 2021 from 6-730pm. There were 8 people in the beginning of meeting, toward the end 12 participants. Age 26-84, 8 males 4 females, white 60 %, Spanish 40%

References: At least two, SCOLARLY within 5 years

 

Subheadings
-Discuss the purpose of the support group attended.   -Describe the demographics of the group (e.g., number of members in attendance, gender, ages)	This is equal to the Introduction on the Grading Rubric
-Discuss the roles of the support group leader in relation to the group members.   -Identify the therapeutic factors (Yalom, 2005) you observed in the group. Give an example of each factor identified.	This is equal to the Focus & Sequencing on the Grading Rubric
-Discuss your observations about the needs of the group. -Describe your feelings about this experience and how it personally enriched you	This is equal to the Conclusion on the Grading Rubric