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Providing care for an aging parent can be one of the most fulfilling life experiences for an adult child. It can also be one of the most exhausting physically, emotionally, and financially. A caregiver experiences psychological and emotional changes when their dependent parent or spouse is placed into formal care. This research project uses the Montgomery Borgatta Caregiver Burden Scale, amended with a questionnaire, in a self-administered, anonymous survey to explore perceptions of caregiving burden before and after the nursing home placement periods. This research showed that numerous factors influence caregivers' perceptions of burden and the quality of relationships among family members.

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This article describes the structure and process of Group WorkCamp, an experiential training program sponsored by the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). The purpose of this 3-day event, which offers workshops and activities in a camp environment, is to transmit the skills, culture, and philosophy of social work with groups to students and new professionals. Camp also aims to connect participants to the group work community through interaction with skilled and enthusiastic professionals and educators. Participants live together as a large group and engage in ever-changing small groups. They learn primarily by experiencing group membership in the present moment, reflecting on this experience, and then discussing its implications. As the Chinese proverb says, "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand." In the course of this experiential learning process participants develop strong connections with peers and mentors and become familiar with IASWG, a resource for support and stimulation that will be invaluable as they pursue group work practice in an environment likely to isolate them from group work peers. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of this model for group work education, supervision, and practice.

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Compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress, can result from a social worker working with traumatized clients in all areas of social work. If affected by compassion fatigue, the social worker will begin to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-like symptoms, which can have a deleterious effect on his/her personal and professional life. If the symptoms of compassion fatigue are left untreated, it could lead to ethical concerns with the client or leaving the social work profession. It is extremely important for the social worker to seek individual help to treat the symptoms and effects of compassion fatigue; however, it is also important to seek out the assistance of therapeutic support groups. This paper will discuss various strategies that can be employed in therapeutic support groups for social workers to help them ameliorate the effects of compassion fatigue.

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