Evaluating the impact of structured groupwork with men in a high security hospital

✍ Scribed by Marie Quayle; Estelle Moore

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 84 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0957-9664
• DOI: 10.1002/cbm.286

✦ Synopsis

Background The need to establish the efficacy of specific interventions with specific populations is a growing priority for mental health professionals and service providers and purchasers. The difficulties not only in establishing such measures, but also in interpreting them appropriately are, however, not fully recognized. Two group interventions conducted with young male patients in Broadmoor Special Hospital are described.

Method In an open study of clinically determined treatment, standardized measures appropriate to the focus of the work, mainly involving self-rating on questionnaires, were applied before and after the groupwork. Results Group mean scores did not reflect individual variation, highlighting some of the disadvantages of studying group, as opposed to idiographic, change. Further, apparent directional change was not always what it seemed. Conclusion The need to detect and demonstrate credible change, which can be reliably measured over time and linked with particular intervention packages, is not exclusive to the special hospital context, although clearly highly pertinent to such settings. The importance of relying on standardized ratings only in the context of observer report and clinical context is emphasized.