[Client Name]
Literature review3
Goals and objectives for the group6
Type of group6
Evaluating success.7
Activities.8
Conclusion10
Introduction
Grief is the emotional process an individual goes throughout after the loss of a loved one. Mothers go through an unbearable amount of emotions after losing a child. Considered to be one of the most traumatic experiences an individual can endure, losing a child can have a detrimental impact on a mother. These individuals generally do not consider treatment during the midst of their grief. Most individuals believe their grief is normal under their circumstances. However, the longer the grief lasts the more likely the individual will suffer from severe complications from the prolonged grief. The following discusses the benefits of group intervention when it comes to grief and proposes a group intervention plan for grieving mothers.
Discussion
There are several theories and models when it comes to how one deals with grief. The most well-known model of grieving is the five stages of grief. This model suggests that an individual goes through five different stages when dealing with the loss of a loved one. These stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Though this model is widely used when dealing with grief, there is little empirical support to support these stages. The following consists of literature findings on different intervention programs and their success on grieving individuals.
Literature review
Grief
Savolanien et al. (2013) was aimed to describe factors that could help parents grieve over the loss of their child. The sample consisted of 143 mothers and 102 fathers whose children died under the age of three. “The factors that help the coping of parents with a child’s death were facing the death that included preparing to the death and experiencing the child’s life and death having been good” (p. 222). Also, receiving and giving support was an important factor when it came to grieving over the loss of a child. The results of this study can provide framework for counselors while dealing with grieving parents.
Grief interventions
Waller et al. (2016) focused on the successfulness of a grief counseling. Due to the fact people suffer from several different types of grief, researchers were concerned with the types of grief counseling interventions would be successful given the diversity of grieving individuals. Researchers examined 126 papers regarding grief counseling interventions. The study found that grief counseling interventions require a strong design and systematic approaches for development and evaluations. “Descriptive research efforts should inform this process, focusing on homogeneity in sample, identification of risk factors for complicated grief and the impact of extraneous factors on intervention effects” (p. 132).
In Raitio et al. (2015), researchers aimed to study the effect of parental grief interventions and their impact on maternal grief. The sample consisted of 136 mothers who had lost one or more of their children. The control group consisted of mothers who lost their children in non-traumatic ways (cancer, disease, etc.), whereas the experimental group consisted of mothers who lost their children in traumatic ways (car accident, drug overdose, etc.). Data was collected by using questionnaires. The results of this study showed that there were no differences in grief reactions between the control and experimental groups in this study. “The mothers’ age, self-perceived health status and the age of decease child were associated with the grief reaction” (p. 510). Thus, this study suggests that there are other factors involved in grief other than the way the mother’s lost their child. In other words, interventions should not be based on how the mother lost their child but based on the age of the child during the time of death.
Group interventions
In Johnson et al. (2015), researcher examined the effect of group interventions on women who experienced a miscarriage. The experiment was a control group design consisting of 40 women who experienced a miscarriage during either their first or second trimester. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or the control group. The experimental group were placed in a group intervention setting, whereas the control group maintained their individual counseling. The results of this study suggest that the individuals who participated in the group intervention setting displayed significantly lower levels of despair after two weeks in the intervention group. This study suggests that group setting for grieving women who suffer miscarriages are better than the individual setting. This study also looked at the differences that time has on the grieving process (p. 492).
“Studies report the importance of the supplemental support system such groups provide, and the critical necessity for the normalizing discussion about reactions and difficulties that take place in group sessions” (Underwood, 2004, p. 289). In individual sessions, the process of assessment could create risks which accompany the loss the individual is grieving. In other words, group sessions provide grieving individual with the proper amount of support these individuals need. Group interventions are great resources for grieving individuals because they eliminate the sense of isolation that commonly accompanies trauma. Studies have shown that the support system that group interventions provide are necessary when it comes to the difficulties and reactions that take place during grief interventions (p. 289).
Goals and objectives for the group
The goals and the objective of the group intervention group are to increase the understanding of grief, to correct irrational thinking that is due to the loss or grief, and to manage the feelings associated with the grief or loss. The group setting will help the mothers with the loss of their child. Group conversations allow an individual to hear how others interpret and deal with loss. The group setting also allows an individual to discuss and identify issues of their grief. By listening to other people’s issues, an individual may be more inclined to identify the issues in their own life. For example, one mother may discuss her inability to go into her child’s room and what she did in order to concur her inability. Another mother may be able to relate to this and use the other mother’s experiences as advice on how to concur her own issues. By placing grieving individuals in a group setting, these individuals are able to talk and use each other for support systems. Thus, the overall goal of the group intervention is to help these individuals manage their grief with the social support from other grieving individuals.
Type of group
The intervention will be aimed for grieving mothers who have lost their children. Grief differs when it comes to age and gender. Children do not grieve the same as adults. Thus, combining participants of different ages would decrease the effectiveness of the intervention. Also, males grieve differently than females, and thus, it is important to keep group interventions gender specific under certain circumstances. Since mothers tend to have different bonds with their children than fathers do, it is best for group interventions to be gender specific in order for the intervention to be the most successful. In other words, this intervention group is specifically aimed at mothers, not fathers or siblings.
Previous research also suggested that the age of the child also had an impact on the success of a group intervention. In other words, how old the participant’s child was at the time of death has to deal with how that individual will grieve. A mother who lost their two-year-old child will grieve differently than a mother who lost their 18-year-old child. Previous group intervention settings have shown success when narrowing focus on the age of the child at the time of death. For this intervention program, the focus will be on grieving mothers who lost their child under the age of three.
The group size should remain small. Twelve participants would be ideal, however, group interventions have been proven to be effective with up to twenty individuals. There should be enough individuals where group conversation can be meaningful but not large enough were individuals are not given the opportunity to speak. A group intervention program should small enough were all individuals are given proper time to participate in the conversation if they feel comfortable.
Evaluating success
Success of the intervention program will be evaluated by the use of group evaluation forms. Group evaluation forms should be distributed after every session. Each member should be asked to fill out the evaluation form to better plan the remaining sessions. The group evaluation form should cover the following questions:
What is your overall feeling related to your group experience? Circle one.
Major Some Not sure Little Waste of Time
What part of the session did you learn the most about yourself? Explain.
Did this session positively or negatively impact your grief level? How?
What would you be interested in participating in more sessions? Explain.
Did anything make you feel uncomfortable regarding the group session? Explain.
Activities
The intervention should start with two different sessions and each session should consisting of a different activity. All participants of the group intervention should be facing one another. All the participants should also be encouraged to state their name and reason why they are there. Members should also be encouraged to state what type of loss they are currently dealing with and how their loss has affected their life. Members should also be encouraged to share their hopes in regards to the grief intervention.
One activity the participants can participate in is an activity where individuals express their fears. In this activity, members are to explain the importance of talking about and discussing their fears. All members of the group are to write their biggest fear on one post-it note and place it in a hat. Then, the all the members of the group are to pick out one post-it note from the hat. One by one, each member will read another member’s fear out loud to the group They will also asked to analyze why this person may have this fear. Only the individual with the hat is to comment or discuss while the group member is analyzing the fear, members should only listen. This activity is a way for members to analyzing their fear. These individuals are offering nonbiased interpretations of their fears. At the end of the session, members should stand and face one another again. All members should take turns stating one word that describes their emotions they are currently feeling. This is a good way of ending any intervention session. It allows an individual to reflect on the session by analyzing their current emotions.
The second session should build on the member’s knowledge when it comes to the stages of loss. The second session should also encourage self-reflection and understanding. A writing activity can be used to help members of the group express their emotions. Members should be asked to write about their emotions for approximately 5-10 minutes. Members can either write a short story or a poem. After the time is up, members of the group should be asked whether or not anyone would like to share their personal literature. Not only does this allow an individual to express their emotions in regard to grief, but they are also allowed to hear other individuals emotions regarding the subject as well. This can help an individual with internalization process that comes along with grieving. This type of group exercise can also help gain group strength. Though this exercise, members of the group will become more comfortable with one another. As a result, the members of the group intervention will be more likely to share in group conversation. Some members may even discover they have a specific bond with another member which could lead to a more powerful support system. Thus, getting members to express their emotions regarding their grief can have more than one benefit for the individual (Hutti, 1988, p. 338).
The overall goal of these activities is to get the members to feel more comfortable talking about their emotions. Talking about ones emotions is not only important for that individual, it is also important for the rest of the members of the group. It allows the other members to hear how other process different emotions regarding grief. For example, the more comfortable one member feels, the more likely she will share the story about how she lost her son. The women may go into detail about the pain she dealt with, as well as the emotional train wreaks it sent her life on. She also discusses the steps she took in order to regain control of her own life. Expressing her situation helps her process and internalize her situation. It also helps the other mothers in the room by showing them what could happen if one does not properly grieve over their child. Group interventions are the best intervention programs when it comes to grieving mothers.
Other sessions should continue working on group building skills. For example, having group members state another members name and a fact that they remember about that individual may help a group become more cohesive. These group members should feel comfortable around each other. This will help them share their emotions and personal feelings. This could also increase the likelihood of these individuals creating friendships and other bounds that result in support systems. Group intervention programs are successful because of the support they offer an individual. Thus, increasing communication within a group setting is crucial when it comes to the success of a group intervention program (Hutti et al., 2015, p. 42).
The material and information relied on for this group intervention plan was based on previous literature regarding group intervention programs. The above literature is what these activities is based on. Some material was gathered from children grieving group interventions, however, the material could be easily be applied to a group setting.
Conclusion
Previous research has suggested the use of group intervention can result in success for grieving individuals. This study aims at finding successful techniques and activities for a grief group intervention. Previous research has suggested that group intervention programs offer the grieving individual the most support over other types of intervention programs. Previous research also suggested that the characteristics of the participants also have an influence on how successful the group intervention is. The main thing that should be focused on is group cohesiveness. Individuals need to feel comfortable and part of the group in order to get the most out of the group setting.
References
Hutti, M., Armstrong, D. & Myers, S. (2015). Grief intensity, psychological well-being , and intimate partner relationship in the subsequent pregnancy after a perinatal loss. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing.
Hutti, M. (1988). Perinatal loss: assisting parents to cope. Emergency Medical Services, 14(6), 338.
Johnson, P. & Langford, R. (2015). A randomized trial of a bereavement intervention for pregnancy loss. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 44(4), 492-499.
Underwood, M. (2004). Group interventions for treatment of psychological trauma. Group Interventions for Treatment of Psychological Trauma, p. 287-305.
Raitio, K., Kaurnonen, M. & Aho, A. (2015). Evaluating a bereavement follow-up intervention for grieving mothers after the death of a child. Journal of Caring Sciences, 29(3), 510 520.
Savolainen, S. (2013). The factors that help the coping of parents with a child’s death. 25(3), 222-235.
Waller, A., Turnon, HJ. & Mansfield, E. (2016). Assisting the bereaved: a systematic review of the evidence for grief counselling. Palliative Medicine, 30(2), 132-148.
