中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: We investigated psychiatric social workers' practice of clinical group work in order to understand their assessment of their own group work competency, and to identify methods of on-the-job group work training. Methods: We collected data in 2017 using an online survey, individual qualitative interviews, and focus groups. We used a published inventory for the survey to understand their practice of group work and their subjective self-assessment of group work competency. Qualitative data derived from 13 qualitative interviews and 2 focus groups included individual psychiatric social workers' personal experiences and opinions in relation to group work practice and training. Analysis consisted of t-tests and Pearson correlations, as well as thematic analysis to summarize key points in the qualitative data. Results: A total of 74 psychiatric social workers participated in the online survey; 86.5% of them had been involved in group work practice, which they conducted on average 3.8 times a year. According to the survey, they were generally confident in their group work competency, particularly, those with a master's degree or with greater experience in group work practice. They had received an average of 16.5 hours of group work training in the previous year (SD = 27.5 hours). Over 60% of respondents indicated that they had received insufficient group work training. Interviewees emphasized the importance of various ways of learning with regard to on-the-job education and training, including both practical experience and supervision. Focus groups participants indicated that practice experience and the type of group work may influence their level of confidence in their own group competency. Conclusions: We offer 3 suggestions based on our results: continue to promote the application of group psychotherapy for the benefit of mental health service users, cultivate psychiatric social workers' competency and confidence in clinical group work through practice and training, and establish a cross-hospital clinical teamwork supervision and training community to improve the availability of on-the-job training for individual psychiatric social workers with insufficient support and resources.