Introduction to Group Work Innovations in a Transforming World

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including evidence-based building community group curriculum that can be used by group workers to facilitate multiculturalism, social justice advocacy and civic engagement, how counselors can utilize a neuroscience-informed framework to facilitate groups for children and adolescents and the impact of groups that were offered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online Group Supervision in Graduate Psychology Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Group supervision, a common method in graduate psychology training, shifted abruptly to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to increase understanding of psychology graduate students' perception of online group supervision during COVID-19 by focusing on the group process and the students' professional identity formation. Data were collected through an online survey comparing an online COVID-19 group sample with a pre-COVID-19 in-person sample. Our findings showed no difference between online group supervision during COVID-19 and in-person group supervision prior to COVID-19 in students' reports of group processes and the prevalence of professional identity statuses. However, group processes differed according to students' professional identity statuses while accounting for the supervision format. We discuss the results of our study and offer several theoretical and practical implications regarding online supervision. © 2023, The Online Learning Consortium. All rights reserved.

Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2023

The annual ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal® worldwide survey to determine industry trends by health and fitness professionals is now in its 17th consecutive year. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly made an impact on the 2021 survey and continued for 2022, but for 2023, some current trends are emerging whereas others are weakening because of the world's recovery from the isolation caused by COVID-19. The #1 trend for 2023, as it was for 2022, is wearable technology. Home exercise gyms was #2 for 2022 but has dropped to #13 for 2023. Fitness programs for older adults will make a comeback in 2023, breaking the top 10 at #4. Functional fitness training, a popular form of exercise for the older adult, is the #5 trend for 2023. Apply It!: From this article, the reader should understand the following concepts: • Explain the differences between a fitness fad and a fitness trend • Use the worldwide fitness trends in the commercial, corporate, clinical (including medical fitness), and community health and fitness industry to further promote physical activity • Study expert opinions about identified fitness trends for 2023

Supporting staff at a low secure mental health setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Why you should read this article: • To learn about some adaptations to practice adopted by a low secure mental health unit during the COVID-19 pandemic • To be aware of interventions used to enable staff to continue to support patients during the COVID-19 pandemic • To appreciate that staff's experience of the adaptations to practice and the well-being support offered to them during the pandemic can be used to inform post-pandemic practice The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly disrupted the work of healthcare professionals in forensic mental health settings, but also prompted them to adopt new ways of working that have benefits and challenges. A low secure mental health unit in the UK adapted its ways of working during the pandemic by providing staff who could work remotely with the necessary equipment. The unit also implemented a stepped psychological response, as recommended by The British Psychological Society, to assist its staff to continue to support patients. This article describes the unit's response to the pandemic and discusses the findings of two evaluations – staff experiences of remote working and of a group relaxation session. The findings could help inform post-pandemic practice in forensic mental health settings.

Group processes and interoperability: A longitudinal case study analysis of the UK's civil contingency response to Covid‐19

Our case study explored a Local Resilience Forum's (LRF) civil contingency response to COVID‐19 in the United Kingdom. We undertook 19 semistructured ethnographic longitudinal interviews, between March 25, 2020 and February 17, 2021, with a Director of a Civil Contingencies Unit and a Chief Fire Officer who both played key roles within their LRF. Within these interviews, we focused on their strategic level decision‐making and how their relationship with national government impacted on local processes and outcomes. Using a form of grounded theory, our data describe the chronological evolution of an increasingly effective localized approach toward outbreak control and a growing resilience in dealing with concurrent emergency incidents. However, we also highlight how national government organizations imposed central control on aspects of the response in ways that undermined or misaligned with local preparedness. Thus, during emergencies, central governments can undermine the principle of subsidiarity and damage the ways in which LRFs can help scaffold local resilience. Our work contributes to the theoretical understanding of the social psychological factors that can shape the behaviour of responder agencies during a prolonged crisis. In particular, the implications of our analysis for advancing our conceptual understanding of strategic decision‐making during emergencies are discussed.

Impact of Online Group Psychoeducation and Support Sessions on Receptivity Towards Digital Mental Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study.

While social distancing was crucial to slow the COVID-19 virus, it also contributed to social isolation and emotional strain. This pilot study evaluated the impact of stand-alone psychoeducational group sessions designed to build social connectedness and space for people to learn about mental health during the pandemic. The study examined if offering the stand-alone group sessions increased uptake of and receptivity to additional mental health services. People had access to free, online group psychoeducational sessions offered by a digital mental health platform company. Sessions were offered to (1) employees who had mental health benefits offered through their employer, and to (2) members of the general public. Session formats included discussions, didactic lectures, and workshops, were facilitated by a mental health provider, and used live video conference technology. Topics included race and identity, stress management, coping with political events, relationship issues, and self-compassion. First-time session registrations were tracked from June 2020 to July 2021 on 6723 participants (3717 benefits-eligible employees and 3006 from the general public). Among the employee subsample, 49.5% attended a group session as their first use of any available service on the platform; 52.5% of these employees sought additional services after their first session. In anonymous post-session surveys of employees and members of the general public, 86% of respondents endorsed knowledge increases, 79.5% reported improved understanding of their mental health, 80.3% endorsed gaining actionable steps to improve mental health, 76.5% said that they would consider group sessions in addition to therapy, and 43.5% said that they would consider group sessions instead of therapy. These results suggest that scalable, brief group psychoeducational sessions are a useful conduit to mental health care and have potential to reach people who may not otherwise access available mental health services.

Video group consultations take centre stage

Practice nurse Maggi Bradley was featured on the BBC's The One Show for her work with video group consultations. Here she talks to Practice Nursing about her innovative digital work, as well as projects to encourage student nurses into primary care

Social identity processes associated with perceived risk at pilot sporting events during COVID-19.

Previous research suggests that shared social identification and expected support from others can reduce the extent to which attendees of mass events perceive that others pose health risks. This study evaluated the social identity processes associated with perceived risk at UK pilot sporting events held during COVID-19, including the government Events Research Programme. An online survey (N = 2029) measured attendee perceptions that other spectators adhered to safety measures, shared social identity with other attendees, expectations that others would provide support, and the perceived risk of germ spread from other attendees. Results indicate that for football attendees, seeing others adhering to COVID-19 safety measures was associated with lower perceived risk and this was partially mediated via increased shared social identity and expected support. However, the sequential mediations were non-significant for rugby and horse racing events. The decreased perceived risk for football and rugby attendees highlights the importance of understanding social identity processes at mass events to increase safety. The non-significant associations between shared social identity and perceived risk and between expected support and perceived risk for both the rugby and the horse racing highlights the need to further research risk perceptions across a range of mass event contexts.

Rethinking the group: Group processes in the digital age: GPIR

This special issue of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (GPIR) on group processes in the digital age began life in the middle of 2019, when the world was a rather different place. As we write this editorial in the middle of 2020, the world has become all too familiar with the transformations brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and is experiencing the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. All the papers in this special issue were written before those seismic events forced their way into our consciousness. And yet, the papers are all remarkably prescient.

Virtual meeting in pathology: Time to adapt to the new-norm

No available.

Perceived COVID-19 risk is attenuated by ingroup trust: evidence from three empirical studies.

BACKGROUND: The social identity model of risk taking proposes that people take more risks with ingroup members because they trust them more. While this can be beneficial in some circumstances, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic it has the potential to undermine an effective public health response if people underestimate the risk of contagion posed by ingroup members, or overestimate the risk of vaccines or treatments developed by outgroup members. METHODS: Three studies (two prospective surveys, one experiment) with community-based adults tested the potential for the social identity model of risk taking to explain risk perception and risk taking in the context of COVID-19. RESULTS: Study 1 was a two-wave study with a pre-COVID baseline, and found that people who identified more strongly as a member of their neighborhood pre-COVID tended to trust their neighbors more, and perceive interacting with them during COVID-19 lockdown to be less risky. Study 2 (N = 2033) replicated these findings in a two-wave nationally representative Australian sample. Study 3 (N = 216) was a pre-registered experiment which found that people indicated greater willingness to take a vaccine, and perceived it to be less risky, when it was developed by an ingroup compared to an outgroup source. We interpret this as evidence that the tendency to trust ingroup members more could be harnessed to enhance the COVID-19 response. CONCLUSIONS: Across all three studies, ingroup members were trusted more and were perceived to pose less health risk. These findings are discussed with a focus on how group processes can be more effectively incorporated into public health policy, both for the current pandemic and for future contagious disease threats.

Insights From the Virtual Team Science: Rapid Deployment During COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To provide insights for organizations that must rapidly deploy teams to remote work. BACKGROUND: Modern situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are rapidly accelerating the need for organizations to move employee teams to virtual environments, sometimes with little to no opportunities to prepare for the transition. It is likely that organizations will continually have to adapt to evolving conditions in the future. METHOD: This review synthesizes the literature from several sources on best practices, lessons learned, and strategies for virtual teams. Information from each article deemed relevant was then extracted and de-identified. Over 64 best practices were independently and blindly coded for relevancy for the swift deployment of virtual teams. RESULTS: As a result of this review, tips for virtual teams undergoing rapid transition to remote work were developed. These tips are organized at the organization, team, and individual levels. They are further categorized under six overarching themes: norm setting, performance monitoring, leadership, supportive mechanisms, communication, and flexibility. CONCLUSION: There is a significant deficit in the literature for best practices for virtual teams for the purposes of rapid deployment, leaving it to organizations to subjectively determine what advice to adhere to. This manuscript synthesizes relevant practices and provides insights into effective virtual team rapid deployment.

A social identity perspective on COVID-19: Health risk is affected by shared group membership.

In the face of a novel infectious disease, changing our collective behaviour is critical to saving lives. One determinant of risk perception and risk behaviour that is often overlooked is the degree to which we share psychological group membership with others. We outline, and summarize supporting evidence for, a theoretical model that articulates the role of shared group membership in attenuating health risk perception and increasing health risk behaviour. We emphasize the importance of attending to these processes in the context of the ongoing response to COVID-19 and conclude with three recommendations for how group processes can be harnessed to improve this response.