The clients’ experience of the community group: implications for nurse facilitators

Abstract

Community or large group meetings occur in many mental health units. Literature is available that describes the possible functions of such groups, but little is known about how they are actually experienced by the members, or the implications of this for nurse facilitators, especially in the current context of inpatient care. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of the clients' experience of the daily community group in a unit that offered both an inpatient and a day patient service for adults experiencing mental health problems. The group meeting was intended to provide an opportunity for people to examine their relationships with others and discover new ways of coping with problems and stressors. The group had a changing membership, with all staff and clients present on the unit at the time expected to attend. The meeting lasted for an hour and had no predetermined agenda. Mental health nurses made up the majority of the staff membership. Semistructured interviews were conducted with four clients who had been attending the group for between 3 and 6 months. These were tape recorded, transcribed verbatim and then analysed using the phenomenological approach of Colaizzi. Three themes emerged from the data: 'Whose Responsibility?', 'Me vs. Them' and 'What Works?' These themes have implications for nurse facilitators, namely: their awareness that such issues are of importance; their ability to recognize how and when they are present; and their ability to effectively intervene.

Service users' experiences of a therapeutic group programme in an acute psychiatric inpatient unit

“…Further studies have involved evaluations of therapeutic groups in a variety of settings. Harms & Benson (2003) examined clients' experiences of a community group which was facilitated by nurses. The findings indicated that the participants experienced the group as an anxiety‐provoking event especially in the early stages.…”

What is the Purpose of Community Meeting in an Inpatients Psychiatric Unit ?

“…Searching the literature for evidence of the community meeting purposes as discussed in the literature review section, reveals that all the studies and papers agreed that community meetings will be of benefit to the patients as wel as the staff (Winer, Klamen, 1997;Novakovic, Francis, Clark, & Caring, 2010;Fiddler et al, 2010;Benson, Harms, 2003;Lanza, Rierdan, Forester, Zeiss, 2009).…”

“…Another qualitative research article was done by Benson, Harms (2003). This study builds up an understanding of the client's experience according to daily community meetings.…”

“…Recent attention has been developed for the provision of inpatients mental health care (Harms, Benson, 2003). Large group meetings of patients and health team widespread in the majority of Mental hospitals, which often called "community are meetings" ( Lipgar, 1999).…”

“…Large group meetings of patients and health team widespread in the majority of Mental hospitals, which often called "community are meetings" ( Lipgar, 1999). The community meeting occurs in inpatients setting as a part of the therapeutic action delivered to clients (Harms, Benson, 2003).…”