Social Work With Multi-Family Groups

A guide to understanding the interrelatedness of the primary family group and the formed therapeutic group. The authors examine the successful use of multi-family groups with families with problem children, patients with life-threatening diseases and their families and several other support groups.

Here is a remarkable new volume for understanding the interrelatedness of the primary family group and the formed therapeutic group. Multiple family therapy is a special type of group practice that involves the members of several families meeting together with a professional to work on common family concerns. Rosemary Cassano, acclaimed for her qualitative research on multiple family group therapy, has produced an exciting volume that reflects the diversity of client populations and patterns and processes in these groups. Social Work With Multi-Family Groups reveals to the professional what actually goes on in the process of group interactions and practitioner interventions. In this state-of-the-art volume, social workers set forth a specific and careful definition of multiple family practice and examine the successful use of multi-family groups with families with child-labeled problems, institutionalized elderly suffering from physical and cognitive impairments and their family members, patients with life-threatening illness and their families, and several other support groups. Each of the practical examples illustrates how professionals can design helping systems for their clients that combine both professional and peer help and activate the help that is embedded in each client’s own family.