Respond to at least two colleagues who identified a different group role than yo

Respond to at least two colleagues who identified a different group role than you:
Identify a group intervention skill discussed in the text and provide a specific example of how your colleague could use this skill to address the challenging behavior.
Task Groups vs Educational, Support, or Skills Groups
Task groups are defined by Kirst-Ashman, K.K., & Hull, G.H., Jr. (2018) roughly as specific types of groups that meet to accomplish policy setting or to establish guidelines for objectives to a systematic challenge that needs revision to enact change in an agency, organization, to address a problem, or to clarify rules to specific legislative policies. Task groups might consist of task forces, committees, legislative bodies, staff meetings, or teams that assemble to accomplish the planning for change and might be vacated after planning has been accomplished.
In comparison, treatment groups are different because they consist of therapeutic measures in which peers with similar challenges meet for education, find emotional or mental support, overcome barriers or life challenges, and build skills through professional direction. One need might be to build on healthy communication and support through social interactions with their peers (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., 2018).
Type of Treatment Group
To build on this, a social worker might lead a psychoeducational treatment group within a psychiatric facility for clients (or patients) who are nearer to discharge and could benefit from information on outpatient services that can meet their aftercare medication, therapy, and care management needs. Whether the group is for educational purposes, therapy, or other support systems, the professional tasked with leading the group needs to be able to guide the group with a firm orientation to facilitate equitable support to each member in attendance, including varying personalities and behavioral needs. In an alternative treatment group, an illustrative example would be in the Walden University Group Therapy video; the social worker leading the group was forced to redirect Trey and Ali due to their aggressive behavior several times to allow others in the group to speak and share their experiences (International Association for Social Work with Groups [IASWG], 2015; Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2018; Walden University, 2018/2021).
Professional Role When Facilitating a Specific Group
Given the diverse needs within treatment groups, the professional’s role becomes vital to the group. When facilitating a psychoeducational class, the social worker must adopt various roles, including educator, mediator, and facilitator. The role will require multiple strengths and roles in leadership, from educator, which informs, to broker, to mediator when behaviors overlap with group members, and to include facilitator to “expedite the way for others” to learn and support each other. The qualified social worker understands behavioral interference and plans to keep the group focused or aligned for the proposed outcome and expectation (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., 2018).
Group Norms and How to Shape These Norms Based on Your Role
Establishing and maintaining group norms is essential to ensure a treatment group’s success. These norms guide interactions and promote mutual respect, creating a foundation for productive engagement. Mutual respect needs to be maintained, and time must be utilized to find a productive outcome for the requirement of the group meeting. The crowd anticipates sharing ideas and working together to achieve individual and collective goals. As the educator, the expectation is to set the stage and therapeutically guide the group so that everyone can construct relativity and build upon each other’s experiences and strengths. The group needs the space to learn together and not against each other. Furthermore, the social worker encourages the group and empowers them to share their values with group talk. The class should be shaped by the leader and everyone in attendance (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., 2018).
Group Roles
Furthermore, each group has several multifaceted personalities and an array of levels of behavior, which can keep the group together or divide it to certain degrees. Each role within the group can be divided by power dynamics between the members. Also, within each group, depending on size and the personalities grouped within the setting, each member inadvertently takes on various roles within the group. One such role out of the multitudes of positive, negative, or nonfunctional roles might be “the energizer,” which is a positive role. The energizer keeps the group excited and allows others to look forward to the following stages in the conversation or learning (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., 2018).
Most Challenging Member Role
Specifically, a group leader will be most challenged by the member roles categorized as “potentially negative.” An aggressor, blocker, recognition seeker, dominator, help seeker, and confessor might dominate the group’s purpose. In the social worker position, providing a place of progress will be challenging. These roles are expected to stall the group in the planned trajectory and will require a strong leader to redirect them for further cohesion and mutual collaboration. The challenge is knowing when and how to be firm with the individuals who fill the roles of aggressor, blocker, etc. A passive leader can easily experience the whole group losing focus and the group eventually needing to disband. It takes a qualified professional to lead and keep the group grounded in the content and purpose of the therapeutic setting (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., 2018).
References:
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Empowerment series: Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). CENGAGE Learning.
International Association for Social Work with Groups. (2015). Standards for social work practice with groups (2nd ed.). IASWG.
Walden University. (2018, 2021). Group therapy [Video]. Walden University Canvas. https://waldenu.instructure.com