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This article was inspired by an edited collection of reflections, SICK, a Compilation Zine on Physical Illness (Holtzman, 2009), written by young people in the radical-alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) community who were diagnosed with a serious physical illness or care about someone with that diagnosis. DIY represents an ideal or value for many young people who associate themselves with the punk subculture. It is a goal of the collection to give voice to physically ill young people to promote mutual support. Group work students, practitioners, and educators will find that what these young people have to say is helpful in thinking about, planning, and initiating mutual aid groups for physically ill people and those who care about them. KEYWORDS physical illness, chronic disease, mutual aid, DIY, do-it-yourself, punk, group work DOI: 10.1080/01609513.2010.487471

This article addresses the use of group work in a community-based outpatient children's mental health agency to respond to financial threats by county and state government during the economic downturn of 2008-2009. Three specific threats that came within months of one another are discussed: (1) the threat to close down a chemical dependency treatment service for youth, (2) severe funding cuts to an outreach program for immigrant youth and their families, and (3) a state government plan to restructure/reform reimbursement for outpatient mental health services that promises to reduce access to care for underinsured families. Group work was used to organize, educate, and activate staff, board, community, and consumer groups, in large and small groups, to counter the threats and build a culture of advocacy. Lending a vision, empowering advocates, managing polarity, and shaping the advocacy message were essential elements of the advocacy process. KEYWORDS group work, advocacy, organizational crisis, managing polarity, economic downturn, coalitions, mental health, chemical dependency, youth services, controlling the message, not-for-profit DOI: 10.1080/01609510903191626

This article is framed as a group work mystery story and presents obstacles and opportunities for working with children and adolescents in groups. The reader is left guessing about how a student intern can overcome what she experiences as an unsympathetic supervisor who is thwarting her attempts to form an activity group composed of teenaged moms. The article interweaves group work concepts and additional practice illustrations around the unfolding mystery. The concept of teaching-on-the-go is issued as challenge for all group workers that wish to be itinerant educators and missionaries for the method. KEYWORDS group work, children, adolescents, residential treatment, mystery, social work student, social work intern, Heather Rebmann, teaching-on-the-go, itinerant educator

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), demonstrate that violence, grief, and trauma know no bounds and have become a fact of life in communities across the United States. The aftermath of 9/11 involves a complex healing and recovery process for those who were directly affected, one that addresses the most basic assumptions about self and community. September 11, 2001 has also had direct and rippling effects on the millions who saw it on television, know about it, and grieve with those who were there. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of this devastating life experience. This article presents and illustrates four practice principles for group work to empower children and youth in the aftermath of disaster. They are: (1) Provide protection, support, and safety; (2) Create groups for survivors that reestablish connections and rebuild a sense of community; (3) Offer opportunities for action that represents triumph over the demoralization of helplessness and despair; and (4) Understand that traumatic grief is a two-sided coin that includes both welcome remembrances and unwelcome reminders. These principles empower young people by building individual coping skills and preventing isolation. doi: 10.1300/J009v31n01_04 KEYWORDS. Group work, children, adolescents, terrorism, disaster, trauma, empowerment, September 11, 2001

This article presents a framework for thoughtful and self-reflective group work with adolescents. The organizing framework contains three overarching, interrelated, and flexible components: attitudinal set, conceptual base/skill set, and value base. Themes and concepts that are addressed to illustrate the framework include: staying in the mess, embracing your inner clumsiness, assuming a stance of uncertainty, becoming an itinerant educator, teaching-on-the-go, setting your ego aside, differentiating the words from the music, hanging out, shifting from a formal interviewing approach to a meandering conversational style, decentralizing authority, using activities of everyday life, and making waves. This flexible framework can be easily adapted for group work with any population, doi: 10.1300/J009v30n03_06 KEYWORDS. Group work, adolescence, teenagers, group work with adolescents, social work with adolescents

This collection of poetry and commentary is offered as an aid for teachers and students in the classroom, and for supervisors and practitioners in the field. Poetry themes presented range from learning from group work traditions and values, to understanding group development, to integrating verbal and non-verbal activities, to promoting social action, and to tuning in to the situational surround. The purpose of presenting these poems is to help to demystify and celebrate group work. doi: 10.1300/J009v30n01_07 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: KEYWORDS. Poetry, group work, teaching, supervision, social work education, field instruction

This essay describes the development of a classroom-based poetry club for young children attending an alternative school, a school-based mental health program, for elementary school students identified as having serious emotional disturbances. The essay emphasizes the importance of pre-group planning, contracting, and negotiating values and norms with teachers; demystifying mutual aid; integrating group purpose and academic goals; and tapping in to children's strengths to develop creative activities. KEYWORDS. Group work, poetry, children, elementary school, education, students, teachers

This article offers guidelines for aspiring writers who wish to have their work published. Especially geared for practitioners, it includes suggestions for getting started, staying focused, structuring an article, understanding the writing process, overcoming frustration, coping with reviewers' critiques and enduring through to completion. KEYWORDS. Writing, publication, group work, social work, professional journal

Social workers might find it difficult to work with teenagers if the workers begin by taking a position of certainty, relying on scientifically sanctioned knowledge as the only truth. Essentials for social work with teenagers are illustrated by personal experiences, poetry, and anecdotes from practice.

This paper presents groups-on-the-go, spontaneously formed groups for adolescents in distress. Groups-on-the-go is an extension of Fritz Redl's concept of life-space interviewing, which is used to address adolescents' direct, here-and-now life experiences. The two major tasks of life-space interviewing are: (1) clinical exploitation of life events and (2) emotional first aid on the spot. This article goes one step further, adding third feature, (3) mutual aid in the moment. This article will describe and illustrate groups-on-the-go, discuss the challenges of this spontaneous approach, and offer guidelines for its effective use. KEYWORDS. Groups, adolescents, life-space interviewing, mutual aid

Poetry has been described as a universal translator. I offer three poems that are evocative of my experience as a child with my grandfathers and their disabilities; and as an adult attempting to deal with the impending death of my father. My wish is that the first poem will reinforce the idea that connecting with one's own memories of aged and disabled family members might support our interactions with people who are aged and disabled in the here and now. I present the final two poems to encourage those working with family members of seriously ill aged people in a hospital setting to better understand the stress of decision-making and to consider devising short-term mutual aid groups to support them during a time for which no preparation exists. KEYWORDS. Aging, disability, short term groups, mutual aid, poetry

This paper presents groups-on-the-go, spontaneously formed groups for adolescents in distress. Groups-on-the-go is an extension of Fritz Redl's concept of life-space interviewing, which is used to address adolescents' direct, here-and-now life experiences. The two major tasks of life-space interviewing are: (1) clinical exploitation of life events and (2) emotional first aid on the spot. This article goes one step further, adding a third feature, (3) mutual aid in the moment. This article will describe and illustrate groups-on-the-go, discuss the challenges of this spontaneous approach, and offer guidelines for its effective use.

An established social worker and book author recalls how he came to writing. It all started when, working as a volunteer in Nebraska, he became a reader and serious letter writer. His interest in reading led him to take up graduate studies in social work where he got a lot of practice in writing research papers. He submitted academic papers for publication after graduate school. Most of them were rejected but he was able to see some of them published in journals. He continued submitting papers to conferences and, eventually, he became an editor of a particular journal of social work.

Group workers working with adolescents must possess special qualities to understand and resolve confusion in adolescents. They should be able to sense the humor of a situation, ignore ego gratification, understand the paradoxical nature of adolescents, analyze adolescent poetry and music, recreate the good and bad memories of their own adolescence, consider the adolescent as a whole person and seek collegial support. Group workers must share ideas among themselves and their experiences with adolescents.