PROGRAM MEDIA, PLAN IMPLEMENTATION, EVALUATION
Age of group members
& TERMINATION
A. PROGRAM MEDIA
• refers to the activities, verbal or non-verbal, which group
engages in for the purpose of achieving its goals.
• it is a very important aspect of planning and is usually chosen
with the guidance of worker.
Notes: is a concept which, when broadly conceived, includes
the entire activities, even relationship, interactions &
experience that have been deliberately planned & carried out
with the help of the worker to meet the needs of the individuals
& the groups.
- any activity, even the silence, with a purpose done
within the group can be termed as a medium.
• Group discussions, role-play, group dynamics exercises, play
activities, film showing, resource persons, field trips, creative
literature, values exercises & etc.
• are utilized in order to influence the behavior of individual
members and the group as a whole.
• is an essential tool which can be used to serve a social
worker's different objectives.
USES OF PROGRAM MEDIA
There are more specific uses of program media. When
selected with care to match the characteristics, needs,
interests, and capacities of the members, program media can:
1. Modify or change attitudes and behavior.
2. Promote individual values such as emotional and intellectual
growth
3. Influence group climate
4. Promote group interaction
5. Enhance/enrich group content
6. Promote desired group values;
7. Facilitate the beginning, middle and ending stages of group
life.
SELECTION OF PROGRAM MEDIA
The choice of program media is not made only on the basis of
group's favorite activities or the worker's previous positive
experiences with a particular medium.
The selection and use of appropriate program media is one of
the social worker's most important skills when working with
groups, a skill that involves imagination and resourcefulness,
among other things.
1. Goals for the group
2. Member's objectives for joining the group
3. Appropriateness in terms of time and space requirements
Notes of Nicu Bernard Baylon, BSSW 2-1
4.
5. Emotional and social characteristics of the members.
6. Cultural and ethnic background of the members
7. Physical characteristics of the members
8. Mood of the group
9. Availability of materials or resources
10. Worker's skills and capacities
GROUP DYNAMICS
• many worker's in the field refer to this simply as "G.D." "G.D."
• exercises are usually structured group learning activities that
are used for specific objectives.
PROGRAM MEDIA
• "program package" consisting of agency pre-planned and
usually pre-structured activities perceived as responsive to
common group concerns or problems.
OTHER GOAL-RELATED ACTIVITIES
Goals can be analyzed in Three (3) Different Perspective:
1. From the perspective of the individual members.
2. From the perspective of the worker.
3. From the perspective of the group as a whole (group
system).
Extra group activities and interventions that have to perform by
the practitioner, whether for the whole group, or for individual
members should be clearly specified and presented separately
from the activities that will be undertaken with the group-in-
session.
B. PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
Plan implementation refers to all activities, worker intervention
and group action which the group system directs toward the
achievement of individual and group goals.
The concern at this stage is to render all specific and
interrelated services appropriate to the problem situation in the
light of the assessment and planning have taken place.
ASPECTS OF PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
1. Interventive roles of the worker
The fact that there are different helping approaches or models
which the worker can choose from in his work with groups
means that he has to be prepared to perform different roles as
necessary – therapist or counselor, crisis intervenor, mobilizer,
educator, mediator, resource person, enabler, and advocate.
Gitterman and Germain caution social workers about the need
to take into account the consequences and implication of their
action on clients, regardless of the interventive strategies being
used, as “clients can be hurt by professionals with benign
intentions but dysfunctional intervention.”
2. Resources and services to be used
The need to utilize concrete community resources and
services will always be an important aspect of social work case
management especially in our country where a large majority
of the social work clientele are poor.
Skillful but ethical use of one’s social networks is called for,
whether in tapping existing resources or creating non-existing
ones.
3. Problems and constraints
Our agency social workers are usually faced with many
different problems and constraints which affect their work with
clients. Among these are heavy workloads, lack of funds,
inadequate facilities and equipment, shortage of trained staff
and inadequate supervision.
WORKER STANCES DURING THE HELPING PROCESS
1. The Direct Stance
The worker assumes the major responsibility for organizing
and convening the group, as well as in guiding the members,
the group process, the discussion and the flow of ideas and
emotion.
This stance is indicated when the group needs a strong
guiding force, perhaps because of kits emotional state, social
stage, intellectual capacity, and so on. It is a stance that is
often needed at the convening phase, until the group is formed
and able to be more self-directing.
2. The Facilitating Stance
In this stance, the worker sees himself as a member of the
group, although one with special expertise and different roles
and functions from the group.
Other specific requirements from him are that he a) promotes
the exchange of ideas, affect, and interpretation among
members; b) participates with the group members so that his
contribution may be considered along with the others , and
which he knows carries a different weight because he is in a
professional r8ole; c) provides reinforcement of and support to
leadership and patterns of relationships; d) clarifies and
focuses problems; and e) assesses group processes and
content, and encourages the members to do likewise.
3. The Permissive Stance
This stance assumes that if correct group composition has
been made, and the purpose and focus of the group is clear,
the group will emerge because the participants have come
together.
The worker does not totally abdicate his responsibility for his
social work function but uses his expertise in human relations
and group behavior and link with the agency to help the group
when appropriate.
Notes of Nicu Bernard Baylon, BSSW 2-1
4. The Flexible Stance
This stance simply means that the worker will change his
stance in the course of a session or over a series of session, in
response to the following;
 His assessment of the progress of the group towards
its objective;
 the needs, capacities and behavior of members;
 the level of group functioning;
 and the problems of content or affect being
considered in the group.
C. EVALUATION
Regular or periodic evaluation which means the on-going
evaluation of actions taken during the period of plan
implementation which provides feedback and enables the
worker and client to consider the progress in their efforts and
modify these efforts if necessary;
Terminal Evaluation which follows implementation and is done
primarily to assess the outcome of the helping efforts so that
the next step, the termination of the helping relationship can be
affected.
In social work with groups, evaluation is done on two levels-
on the level of the individual member and on the level of the
group as a whole.
The worker has to write at least a short case assessment on
each group member.
When doing periodic evaluations of the individual members
and the group, the worker’s concern is to assess or monitor
their progress or movement based on the goals that had been
formulated and to modify these goals if necessary.
RECORDS AS EVALUATION TOOLS
Social work records have important uses and one of these is in
relation to evaluation. In group work practice, the worker
cannot just verbally claim to have been successful in achieving
his goals for a client group or claim that the group member’s
attitude, values or behaviors have changed or improved on
account of his/her group participation.
RECORDS THAT GROUP WORKERS USUALLY
WRITE/KEEP
1. Pre –group/intake interview records
2. Individual case assessments
3. Statements of group concerns/problems, group goals
and plans
4. Attendance records
5. Process or summary recordings of group sessions
6. Records of marginal interviews
 7. Records of collateral interviews/interview with
“significant others”
8. Evaluation records
9. Transfer/ closing summaries

D. TERMINATION
TERMINATION IN THE HELPING PROCESS
• termination is done when the goals for the client have been
substantially achieved and there is no reason to expect that
any more significant gains can be achieved by extending the
helping relationship.
• the helping relationship may also be discontinued if after a
reasonable period of time there has been very little progress or
movement toward the achievement of the agreed-on goals for
the individual and/or the group and the prospect of change in
the situation is not held likely.
• when the mode of helping is through a group, termination
may be affected in different ways, depending on the type of 1. PRETERMINATION
group one is working with.
• this is a period of preparation for the actual ending which
Example: in the case of a leadership or skills-training group include the acknowledgement that the group is about to end.
that has clearly defined tasks to be accomplished within a set
time of frame, members are usually admitted into the group • this helps the group or the individual member to get used to
and are terminated at the same time. the idea that the end to the group's life or membership in it is
about to come.

• Closed groups 2. TERMINATION

- once started, new members are not allowed to join. • this is the recognized ending which means the last actual
session of the group or of individual whose membership is
• Modular groups program being terminated.
- pursue what is popularly called “developmental” 3. POST-TERMINATION
orientation.
- group membership in these are frequently terminated • consists of the plan or follow-up which can be done on either
smoothly with the members sometimes receiving an individual or on a group basis.
certificates of participation.
• Group program that has a “Treatment” Orientation
- membership in such a group is terminated when the
goals for the individual members have been achieved.
• Open group
- one that permits additional members to join after the
group has started.
Termination is…
- is to exercise care so that there is some homogeneity
in group composition.
- termination of group membership, whether done
simultaneously for all members at one time, or
individually, one at a time, calls for the exercise of
professional judgement, as do all other activities in
the helping process.

Notes of Nicu Bernard Baylon, BSSW 2-1