This book is a welcome and long-awaited new edition to social work texts on group work. The Handbook of Social Work with Groups (2nd ed.), takes a broad view of the topic with chapters authored by a wide range of North American social work authors. The book covers a comprehensive range of groups in which social workers participate, or facilitate, as part of their professional work. This second edition has new and revised chapters after the first edition published in 2004, with new sections on group work with young people in relation to substance misuse, group work in parole settings, and groups addressing intimate partner violence. The new edition has importantly refreshed the emphasis on how groups can be empowering for group members and how social workers planning and facilitating groups can contribute to social justice. There is also updated coverage of social work research and evidence-based practice in group work.
The editors propose the Handbook to be “a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners who seek information about any and all aspects of group work” (p. 1) and this has been largely achieved. The breadth and depth of their scholarship supports the book becoming a core text for social work education courses focusing on group work, albeit that these are becoming increasingly rare in Australia. Practitioners will be interested in particular chapters relevant to their areas of practice, for example, with migrants and refugees, in child welfare, or in group work with involuntary clients. The chapters on group practice models will help practitioners and students review the foundations of what they are striving to achieve when either setting up a group or programming group activities.
The book is structured into several main themes. The first section covers group dynamics, ethics and social justice aspects of group work, grounding the intellectual and values base of group work for social workers. Parts two and three present the models and approaches that are most relevant to contemporary social work practice; mutual aid, cognitive–behavioural, support and self-help, and psychoeducational groups, with a chapter devoted to each. The chapter on a mutual aid model concludes that one of the challenges for this staple of social work practice is to increase the level of empirical research, particularly when compared to cognitive–behavioural group research. Strengths-based group work is addressed by specific authors writing about group work with particular clients or settings.
The middle section of 10 chapters covers group work shaped by specific participant populations and groups for organisational or community functions. The latter includes group work processes and ways of facilitating groups applied to social rather than individualised goals, for example, community organising, social action groups, and group aspects of multidisciplinary teams. The last section of the books covers research aspects of group work and includes a chapter on technology-mediated groups.
In the Introduction to the Handbook, the editors outline the general chapter structure that contributing authors were asked to follow. As a result most chapters include the main aspects and purpose of group work in the particular setting or context being discussed, something of the historical development of the particular approach, and describe the current key research on the topic. All chapters include a thorough reference list. Consequently, there is a unified feel in reading across many of the chapters.
For my own area of practice, that of health social work, the material on group work in health care settings usefully includes a brief overview of historical trends in the purpose of group work programs delivered in health care and some of the social work critiques of the dominant group work forms. This material includes commentary on earlier twentieth century health groups, seeing the impact of “loyalty and cooperation between participants” (p. 207) with participants valuing that they are not alone. This in turn leads to increased compliance with often difficult or monotonous health treatments. The chapter covers the significant move towards structured cognitive–behavioural groups in health, mirroring the emphasis on the delivery of evidence-based health programs. The chapter concludes with examples of the possibilities of group work that assist marginalised groups in context of health services.
Finally, several chapters proved useful as course reading materials when running recent professional development workshops for health and hospital social workers on developing and facilitating groups. The purchase of an individual copy may be expensive for social workers however the Handbook would be a useful addition to professional libraries and departments as a resource for social work staff and students.