Last Updated on December 30, 2022 by Team TSW

The group work method is considered as the primary method of social work practice. Group work helps towards betterment of social functioning of individuals. It is a method that uses groups as a medium to achieve the end. Group work is a method that social workers use to help people of all ages and all sections of society to improve their social functioning and to cope more effectively with their problems. With their targeted work, social workers have become critical members of clinical teams responding to social, emotional and mental problems. In addition, social workers also work in non-clinical settings in which they work towards social integration. In these settings they may work with various groups such as children, women and youth in a community. These groups become conducive for mitigating problems at hand or for community change and development. Many luminaries of the field have tried to provide social group work definition; few of them have been discussed later in the article.

Social Group Work Concept

Professional social workers use their knowledge of group formation and functioning to affect the performance and adjustment of the individual. The focus is always on the individual and the group is the medium to bring that change. The aim is enhancement of social functioning. Social worker with their intensive experience make programs to improve member interaction so that they are at ease with each other. To attain the aim of group, worker is not limited to therapeutic interventions and treatment of emotional problems (see Barker, 1995). The objectives could be sharing of information, development of social and manual skills, changing of attitudes and values, and diverting energies towards positive and productive channels. A score of activities can be part of group activities such as discussions on area of relevance and common interest, sports, educational activities and arts and crafts.

Social Group Work Definitions

Various Social Scientists have tried to define social group work. In order to understand what social group work is, it appears essential to present some important social group work definitions given from time to time :-

☰    Trecker

Social group work is a method in social work through which individuals in many groups in a variety of community agencies settings are helped by a worker who guides their interaction in program activities so that they may relate themselves to others and experience growth opportunities in accordance with their needs and capacities to the end of individual, group and community development

☰     Coyle

Social group work aims at the development of a person through the interplay of personalities in a group situation, and at the creation of such group situations as provided for such integrated, cooperative group action for common ends.

☰    Allan Brown

Group work provides a context in which individuals help each other; it is amethod of helping groups as well as helping individuals; and it can enable individuals and groups to influence and change personal, group, and organizational and community problems.

☰     Hamilton

Social group work is a psychosocial process and is concerned no less than with developing leadership ability and cooperation than with building on interest for the group for a social purpose.

☰     Reid

The purpose of group work is to help improve the well being of the members and relieve personal suffering. This is accomplished because groups have the ‘power to enhance problem-solving capacity, prevent the development of serious social problems, and restore and maintain the social functioning of members’.

☰     Konopka

an approach consciously directed toward developing the individual’s greatest capacity while relating him to the group and learning when he has to contribute and when he has to withdraw.

☰     Wilson and Rayland

We see social group work is a process and method through which group life is affected by a worker who consciously directs the interaction process towards the accomplishment of goals which in our contrary are conceived in a democratic frame of reference.

☰     Helen Northen

Within the general purpose of the profession, social work with small groups may be directed toward helping the members to use the group for coping with and resolving existing problems in psychosocial functioning, toward preventing anticipated problems or maintaining a current level of functioning in situations in which there is danger of deterioration. Further, it may be directed towards developing more effective patterns of group and organizational functioning and removing environmental obstacles. With any group, the specific outcomes sought vary with the desires, needs, capacities, and situations of the members who comprise the group and with the purpose and nature of the group itself.

Conclusion

When all the social group work definitions are put together and compared, overlapping is very clear. A group is formed with individuals having similar kinds of problems. A group can be formed consisting of individuals with emotional or mental problems. Group work can be used in all settings of social work. Group work helps towards betterment of social functioning of individuals. It is a method that uses groups as a medium to achieve the end. Group work is a method that social workers use to help people of all ages and all sections of society to improve their social functioning and to cope more effectively with their problems.