Involuntary Group Members

Involuntary Group Members

Involuntary members have been ordered to attend a group in exchange for some reward. Many times, this is a result of judicial system intervention. Often, these members are not interested in participating and getting to know others. The clinical social worker must understand the potential issues or problems that arise within a group of involuntary members and ways to address these issues. It can be especially difficult to create a sense of empowerment when these members have been mandated to attend.

For this Discussion, pay particular attention to the Schimmel & Jacobs (2011) piece.

Post your description of the strategies for working with involuntary group members presented in the Schimmel & Jacobs (2011) article. Describe ways you agree and/or disagree with their strategies. How might you handle the situations presented in the article differently? Explain ways these strategies promote empowerment.

References (use 3 or more)

Toseland, R. W., & Rivas, R. F. (2017). An introduction to group work practice (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

• Chapter 7, “The Group Begins” (pp. 197–230)
• Chapter 8, “Assessment” (pp. 230-263)

Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). Theory and practice of group psychotherapy (5th ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

• Chapter 13,      “Problem Group Members” (pp. 391–428)

Lietz, C. A. (2007). Strengths-based group practice: Three case studies. Social Work With Groups, 30(2), 73–87.

Schimmel, C. J., & Jacobs, E. (2011). When leaders are challenged: Dealing with involuntary members in groups. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 36(2), 144–158.

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013a). Bradley (Episode 1) [Video file]. In Sessions. Baltimore, MD: Producer. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Discussion 2: Week 8 Blog

Refer to the topics covered in this week’s resources and incorporate them into your blog.

Post a blog post that includes:

· An explanation of potential challenges for evaluation during your field education experience

· An explanation of personal action plans you might take to address evaluation in your field education experience

References (use 2 or more)

Thyer, B. A. (2013). Evidence-based practice or evidence-guided practice: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet [Invited response to Gitterman & Knight’s “evidence-guided practice”]. Families in Society, 94(2), 79–84.

Wharton, T. C., & Bolland, K. A. (2012). Practitioner perspectives of evidence-based practice. Families in Society, 93(3), 157–164.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.