Enhancing Health Care Professional Awareness Discussion Responses

Discussion 1

The most common type of support groups consists of individuals who are addicted to something and feel they need the support of others with this common addiction to advance them into the release from this addiction. Members will come together at a designated location where they will speak of their feelings, issues, and concerns to gain feedback from other members on how to deal with these topics. Other support groups include individuals with specific medical issues, teenage mothers, victims of natural disasters, and even individuals who have a form of disability (Jacobs, 2012).

ORDER NOW FOR ORIGINAL, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPERS

Leading a support group focused on Veteran health issues both mental and physical would be ideal for me. A support group is where members share their thoughts and feelings with other members who are experiencing similar problems “to learn that others are struggling with the same issues… emotions… and thoughts” (Jacobs, Schimmel, Masson & Harvill, 2016). They are helping one another through the process. The reason I have chosen this group is I had the opportunity to teach and facilitate large groups in the military. I found it to very self-therapeutic and rewarding. Sharing my own personal struggle with the mental and physical issues I have overcome, telling my story to help others. I would be very interested in facilitating, by using empathic listening to assist in my development of the group. Using my own experience from my time in the service to help establish a trust with the members. Goal setting and resilience will be specific topics we will concentrate on. The overall concept will stress the importance of looking at the positive and learning what you can control. For a support group, the use of intrapersonal leadership would be recommended. Support groups exist in order to support individuals who are experiencing the same situations or issues within their lives (Jacobs, 2012).

The leader attends to not only lead the group as a whole but to address specific challenges that each individual may be facing (Jacobs, 2012). It will be closed to facilitate the trust needed to discuss the individuals struggles both mentally and physically. In looking at the overall makeup of this group it will be small in members limited to six, because the smaller the size of the group, the atmosphere and setting will help assist the members to participate. Support groups are a collection of individuals who meet on a regular basis such as one time a week and all possess something in common with one another (Jacobs, 2012). My goal is to concentrate on the individual and allow them to share their story providing empathy and understanding as needed. I intend to keenly listen more and speak less allowing the individuals to express themselves as needed.

Reference

Jacobs, E. (2012). Group Counseling: Strategies and Skills. Seventh Edition. Books/Cole, Cengage Learning. Ch.1, p. 6-34.

Shalana

Discussion board 1

There are many types of groups described in our readings this week. The group that I would lead is an education group. Education groups discuss information about different topics (Jacobs et al., 2016). The group size would range from 10-15 people and include a diverse population of people wanting to learn about the information being presented. Because this is a fairly large group it will allow for very different personalities. The two types of personality traits that are most common are introverts and extraverts. According to Forsyth (2019), “introverts tend to be withdrawn, quiet, and reclusive”, whereas, “extraverts like working with other people rather than alone, and they talk spontaneously to strangers” (Forsyth, 2019, p. 97). This will help bring the group together and have more conversation. This is because the extraverts are more outgoing and will help with engaging the introverts in the conversation. This will be a closed group. Due to the topic being discussed, I would like for the group to form a relationship so they will feel more comfortable sharing with their group members. They will also have the opportunity to practice what they have learned. This works better when the group is closed.

The group’s purpose is to help members become more knowledgeable about liturgical dance so that they can eventually start their own or add more to their already established dance ministry. The topics that will be covered in this session are the meaning of liturgical dance in the church and what the bible says about it, technical aspects of dance, types of dances, the importance of having a relationship with God, how do you know if you are called to dance, and how to start a dance ministry at your church. This group will meet once a week for 2 hours. Jacobs et al. (2016), states that the leader doesn’t always get to choose where the group will meet, however if the leader does get to choose, they should make sure the location is suitable (Jacobs et al., 2016). Considering that we will have opportunities to practice skills learned, we will need a lot of space. This group will meet in the conference room of my church because it is closed off from potential distractions. I will also make sure there are no other meetings happening during our session.

References

Forsyth, D. R. (2019). Group dynamics (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Jacobs, E. E., Schimmel, C. J., Masson R. L., & Harvill, R. L. (2016). Group counseling:

strategies and skills (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning