Specialty Group
There are many opportunities for a human service professional to make a difference. As a human service professional, parents of children with visual impairments are a target group that I want to focus on. Visually impaired children have special needs and concerns which are unlike other disabled children. Becoming parents of a child with visual impairments, it was extremely difficult finding the necessary support groups to help us through difficult situations. Within this paper I will discuss the roles of a human service workers when facilitating a group for parents with visually impaired children, explain the theoretical approaches used in such groups, and the ultimate goals for the group.
Parents normally take the necessary precautions to ensure that their child is as healthy as the child must be. The advancements in medical technology and testing assist medical providers in predicting possible medical conditions in unborn children. Though there are congenital defects that are not detected in serological testing and cause’s impaired vision in children. Parents who birth to a child with visual impairments experience the stages of grief and having a support system can be very comforting. Hosting a group for parents that are experiencing grief related to their child’s vision disorders eases the feeling of isolation during this delicate period.
The purpose of the group is to remove the negative stigma that is associated with children with visual impairments, realize that there are solutions for parents, expand on possibilities for both parents and children, and enlighten parents on the possibility of a full life for their child. The role of the facilitator would be coordinating group sessions that help parents associate with other parents grieving with the similar issues. Managing a group for parents dealing with a child’s visual condition, the facilitator would have to understand the difficulties of visual impairments in children and how to empower parents to seek out resources within the parents’ community. The facilitator should involve medical professionals and external organizations that understand the difficulties that children are likely to face in the future. Facilitators should also involve parents with older children with visual impairments that have been successful in adjusting to life challenges.
Theoretical approaches that a facilitator would use with parents dealing with visually impaired children would be the Gestalt theoretical Approach and the Person-Centered Approach theories. Parents with a child suffering with visual impairments may feel disconnected with the world and also disconnected to parents with normally sighted children. These parents also feel pulled in many emotional directions and withdrawn from their basic parental obligations. The Gestalt theoretical approach helps lead the parents in a forward direction with living and caring for their visually impaired child. Allowing the parents’ reflect the positives language and not reflect on the negative avoidance language such as “I won’t and I can’t” (Kottler, 2001, p. 1). Using the Gestalt approach, the facilitator can use testimonies from other parents and implant the “I will and I can” statements. Changes the attitude of the new parents and can be used as a prelude for hope for new parents raising a visually impaired child.
A facilitator would also be successful using the Person-Centered Approach when managing a parental group session. Carl Rogers believed that a group setting that consisted of caring, supportive, cohesive participants would manifest an ideal place for change (Kottler, 2001, para. 6). If parents can sit amongst peers and share this or her thoughts and anxieties of having a child with visual impairments; the parents would be able to release his or her inner most fears related to raising a child with visual impairments. Allowing parents elaborate on their feelings in a group would induce an instance peer group intervention. Other parent can share past or present issue they are facing with their own visually impaired child and build a relationship of understanding amongst the participants in the group.
There can be negative implications when using either theoretical approach or facilitating group sessions for new parents of a visually impaired child. Parents that do not understand how they feel about raising a child with disabilities can elicit a negative tone for the group. It is the facilitator’s responsibility to ensure that only positive content is used during the sessions. Although it is difficult for parent to always use positivity while talking about the newborns visual impairments; the facilitator must be prepared to use positive affirmations to help mold a parent’s psychological thinking ("How Does Positive Affirmation Work," 2013, p. 1).
Properly managing the group sessions and setting a positive tone for the group will benefit both the group participants and facilitator. Using either the Gestalt or Person-Centered theoretical approach the facilitator can positively impact parents of a visually impaired child. Also the use of positive affirmation is a simple but yet affect way to for a facilitator to manage a group session which is headed towards a negative spiral. References
How Does Positive Affirmation Work. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.recoveryconnections.ca/how-does-affirmation-therapy-work.html
Kottler, J. A. (2001). Theories of Group Intervention. In (Ed.), Learning Group Leadership: An Experiential Approach (1 ed.). [0205321518]. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx?assetMetaId=78d70757-9dcc-44d8-ba34-29825a739fe2&assetDataId=56b48000-0ba4-448a-a9f6-84f6935abe35&assetpdfdataid=e5b4c2f2-22f9-461d-bf76-f1eec5984164