Book Revkws 105
My third hesitation about the book concerns its concentration on South American
examples, sometimes to the neglect of Africa. For example, the Dakar Conference, Africa's
first, and to date only, meeting on gerontology and ageing, is mentioned in one page.
Nevertheless, in spite of these limitations, I found this study very valuable because it is
a pioneering work in a field that has until now had little by way of comprehensive analyses.
It summarises in a readable way much of the work already done, and addresses the main
issues, charting the way forwardforThird World elderly to live in dignity and independence,
an ideal which many societies embrace but do little to realise.
Reviewed by Joe Hampson SJ, Jesuit Provincial, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Group Work with the Emotionally Disabled, Baruch Levine (ed), Haworth Press,
London 1990 (133pp, US$22,95 hbk, ISBN 0 86656 9944 hbk).
(Simultaneously published as Social Work with Groups, Vol 13,No 1).
This book is one of the volumes in the series "Social Work with Groups". The collection
of papers in this volume covers a number of theoretical and practical issues of groupwork
in psychiatric and clinical settings and is a useful resource for workers in this field.
Part I by Levine deals with the history, problems and issues of groupwork. Part IT
comprises a short paper by Konopka who stresses that, despite the burgeoning of group
treatment for various clinical groups, therapy groups are not necessarily therapeutic.
Part illcontains a number of papers describing the formation and running of therapeutic
groups for a variety of clinical populations in a number of different settings. Bond and de
Graaf-Kaser present a typology of group approaches, such as unstructured approaches in
sheltered settings, structured approaches in sheltered settings, including education, skills
training, etc; experimental 'in vivo' formats whichcan be implemented inrehabilitation, and
drop-in centres. The comprehensive list of references following this paper should prove
most helpful to anyone wishing to select and run a therapy group.
Sheldon Rose's paper on the group treatment of agoraphobia, using the traditional
approach of 'in vivo' exposure, covers the steps to be followed in the building, maintenance
and treatment of such a group.
A thought provoking and innovative approach to the group treatment of children is set
out in Scharness' paper. Two types of participants are dealt with. Firstly, there is group
treatment oflatency age children from families disrupted by separation and divorce. The
aim of treatment is to reduce confusion regarding family composition and to help these
children deal more constructively with the roles they are allocated in their families. A
combination of intrapsychic and family therapy is used with the genogram being the main
medium of instruction and intervention. The second type of group discussed by Schamess
comprises teenage mothers and their toddlers and young children under the age of six years.
The children interact with one another under the guidance of a trained worker while the
mothers are given psychoeducation on child development with more constructive mother/
child relationships being promoted.
106 BookRtllI~W8
The remainder of the papers in the volume include discharge issues for psychiatric
patients, eg concerns about leaving hospital, future plans and resource issues, shortterm
group therapy for fathers incarcerated in maximum security psychiatric hospitals, focusing
on their relationships with their children; and, [mally, an interesting and useful article on
educational and occupational issues concerning chronic psychiatric patients, which uses a
systematic approach to familiarise participants with a number of aspects of employer
organisations.
This book discusses a number of workable approaches to group therapy which could be
implenlented in a variety of Zimbabwean clinical settings.
Reviewed by Angela Davies, Family Counselling Unit, Harare
People Care in Institutions: a Conceptual Schema and Its Application, Yochanan
Womer, Haworth Press, New York, 1991 (237pp, US$19,95 pbk, US$29,95 hbk, ISBN 1
56024 012 1 hbk, 1 56024 082 2 pbk).
(Monograph was published simultaneously as Child and Youth Services, Vol 5, No 1.)
The author uses the word internat as a label for any residential institution "in which persons,
for some period of their lives, do not live in the culturally familiar and normatively preferred
familial arrangement". He includes boarding schools, homes for children and the aged,
hospitals, p:isons, monasteries and others, and makes the point that all internats are agents
for change (whether this is explicitly defined or not).
He presents a schema by which certain dimensions of internat life and function can be
evaluated and planned interventions made to ensure that change is goal-directed and
purposeful rather than random. This analysis is multi-level.
The axes of autocracy/democracy and total/partial internats are then placed in relation
to these axes. They are then placed also in terms of whether they are instrument or container
internats. This axis refers to whether the internat is organised primarily to address the
developmental needs of the internees, in which case interpersonal relationships "constitute
an important and sometimes major factor in the internat's work" (eg a commune) or whether
it is a grouping of people and appliances collected "to perform a task which could just as well
be performed elsewhere except for logistical expediency" (eg a hospital).
The communication feedback loop which connects motivation, participation and
attention is discussed, as is the ecosystemic mapping of the internee, staff and environment
sets. Most of the book, however, is concerned with a problem-solving approach applied to
an analysis of quality of internat life, showing how specific issues related to the internal's
fundamental goals or principles can be addressed in a very practical way, and solutions can
be generated and then evaluated and checked.
I found the approach stimulating. The book does just what the title suggests: it presents
a schema whereby those running residential institutiOns can analyse exactly what is
happening and why, and make corrections to ensure that change is in a positive direction.
I would recommend this as essential reading for all institutional staff, and useful even for
those whose care of people is in a non-residential context.
Reviewed by Margaret Hem1ing, Family Counselling Unit, Harare, Zimbabwe.