Supporting Family Carers Through Telephone-Mediated Group Programs: Opportunities For Gerontological Social Workers

Abstract

<p>Telephone-mediated group programs are an important but under-utilized medium for reaching frail or disabled older persons' family carers who are in need of support. The primary purpose and style of group programs can range across a broad spectrum&ndash;encompassing educational, supportive and therapeutic types. Gerontological social workers are the members of the multidisciplinary care team whose training, experience and supervision makes them most suitable for facilitating this broad range of group types. Drawing on the experience of training a number of group facilitators, this article provides suggestions for social workers contemplating the use of telephone-mediated groups and highlights groupwork skills peculiar to conducting group programs via the telephone.</p>

Identifying and Addressing Barriers to African American and Non—African American Families' Discussions about Preemptive Living Related Kidney Transplantation

“…In other areas, the potential role of social workers in addressing a broad variety of challenging health-related problems is being increasingly recognized, particularly when problems are multidimensional (ie, have both logistical and psychological importance) and involve family decisions. 16,17 We did not identify differences in perceptions about barriers between African American and non-African American groups, suggesting that significant additional efforts to tailor interventions to address deficiencies in discussion on the basis of the race of the patient and the patient's family may not be needed. However, research in other areas has demonstrated that African Americans often have concerns, such as mistrust of medical professionals or medical settings and fear of potentially experimental procedures, that could adversely affect their willingness to pursue health care services such as preemptive living related kidney transplantation.…”

Effectiveness of Educational and Social Worker Interventions to Activate Patients' Discussion and Pursuit of Preemptive Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…13 Although the TALK Social Worker intervention appeared to only modestly improve discussion/pursuit behaviors when compared to the TALK Educational intervention, social workers are trained to help patients address a broad range of logistical and psychological challenges associated with family decisions and may be particularly well suited to support patients’ family discussions about LKT. 32,33 Master’s level educated social workers already participating in the multidisciplinary clinical care of patients with ESRD across the U.S. may represent an ideal resource for feasibly providing similar interventions to pre-ESRD patients.…”

Mutual Aid Group Work: Social Work Leading the Way to Recovery-Focused Mental Health Practice

“…According to Martindale-Adams et al (2002) the benefits of telephone support groups include anonymity, low technological demands on participants, flexible meeting schedules, increased accessibility, and increased safety as a result of remaining in the home. Shanley (2008) noted further advantages as cost-effectiveness, effective utilization of time through strict time limits, removal of geographical distance as a barrier to accessing support services, and ability of participants to remain involved even when they need to be in different locations from week to week, for example, when they are on vacation.…”

“…Shanley (2008) believes that social workers possess the skills to be ideal group facilitators and initiators of telephone support groups. This article presents mutual aid telephone support groups for family members of people diagnosed with long-standing and chronic mental illnesses.…”

“…Telephone groups have been used to provide emotional support, deliver information, assist with problem solving, share experiences, and reduce isolation among a number of different targeted clientele in the health and welfare fields and especially for those who are geographically dispersed or distant from mainstream services. These client groups include women with (Jalovcic & Pentland, 2009), older stroke caregivers (Hartke & King, 2003), caregivers of people with brain injury (Brown et al, 1999), carers of people with dementia and dependent elderly adults (Rosswurm, Larrabee, & Zhang, 2002;Shanley, 2008;Shanley, Roddy, Cruysmans, & Eisenberg, 2004;Smith & Toseland, 2006), HIV-positive persons (Meier, Galinsky, & Rounds, 1995;Nokes, Chew, & Altman, 2003), Alzheimer's disease caregivers (Martindale-Adams, Nichols, Burns, & Malone, 2002), parents of children with chronic conditions (Ritchie et al, 2000), women with breast cancer (Heiney et al, 2003), and homebound elderly (Kaslyn, 1999).…”