ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two primary considerations: the practice of social group work as part of residential treatment and the difference inherent in working with clients within a social work group and in group living. Practice of the social group work method in a residential treatment service requires special attention. Residential treatment creates a network of groups: living, work, social work, classroom, recreation, denizen, and staff groups, and the communal group of the total institution. It takes into account the complications of living and treatment which focuses on the problems that brought the clients to the service. The chapter maintains that the social work group and the living group furnishe the clients with two distinctly different avenues of treatment. Social group workers practicing in residential treatment need to be alert to the intrinsic factors of that treatment situation just as they are in such settings as a neighborhood center or guidance clinic.
