A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital

A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital aids the mental health practitioner who is responsible for creating and running groups for a day hospital program, inpatient unit, or intensive outpatient program. This handbook includes 50 protocols for running groups that cover a wide range of topics, including motivation, self-esteem, shifting cognitive distortions, and risk-taking in relationships. It also offers instruction for creating your own groups, especially extensive instruction for how to create a group using cuts from popular movies. These kinds of groups provide an element of entertainment that can capture the interest of the group while offering stimulus for discussing important treatment issues.

Unlike any other text that discusses day hospital programming, A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital contains protocols for the invention of new groups, saving you the time and effort needed to create one yourself. Intended for social workers, psychologists, and occupational therapists, this book introduces new and unique methods on how to invent or manage groups for a day hospital program, inpatient unit, or intensive outpatient program. The text also includes exercises that address the topics of motivation, self-esteem, shifting cognitive distortions, and risk-taking in relationships.

Because the protocols were created with different types of patient groups in mind, this book contains ideas not offered in typical treatment settings. A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital is designed to help clinicians capture the interest of patients and to promote the discourse of important treatment issues by providing:

• 50 protocols for operating existing day hospital, inpatient or outpatient groups
• advice, professional opinions, and notes from the author to the clinician on all protocols
• exercises to help patients strengthen their abilities to handle the activities of daily living and socialization
• several hypothetical exercises, complete with a list of preparations, a description of the activity, and progress notes from observations with patient assessments
• numerous examples that use parts of popular movies to createnew groups and stimulate discussion
• comprehensive, easy-to-follow instructions for both clinicians and patientsThe protocols in A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital contain detailed example activities complete with worksheets, skits, sample discussions, and hypothetical patient reactions to certain topics. Many exercises request that the patient set goals for himself or herself before starting a new topic. In addition, there is suggested homework for the patient to complete after a topic has been discussed, allowing you to monitor what your patients have learned and how they have improved after the exercise.
  
  After reading A Guide to Creative Group Programming in the Psychiatric Day Hospital, you’ll be ready to treat your patients using easy, effective methods that will lead to successful group discussions and lessen the chance of patient relapse.