Group Work with Older Adults

This book is designed as a practical guide for experienced practitioners who wish to improve their skills in working with groups of older adults, and as a primer for students who want to learn how to do groupwork. The book offers an introduction to this form of clinical intervention with the elderly population. It examines the particular issues which arise in treating older adults and provides many case examples of the varieties of experience a clinician can expect to face. The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on how general groupwork skills are modified with working with the elderly. In this section, the author discusses issues regarding effectiveness and efficiency, what works with older adults and what does not, and explores the skills necessary to facilitate therapeutic group dynamics, to successfully lead a group, and to carry a group through all of its stages. The second part explores the more specific skills required with the different kinds of groups used with older adults, including support groups, therapy groups, social, recreational and educational groups, and advocacy groups.