Compare task and treatment groups. What concepts apply to both these groups and what features distinguish them?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A significant aspect of professional social work practice is performance in task and work groups. In contrast to treatment groups, task groups try to accomplish a purpose, create a product, or develop policies. Social workers are likely to participate in task groups throughout their career, starting with group projects for class, continuing as a staff member, and eventually serving as a leader of such groups in their practice. As with treatment groups, task groups may have open or closed membership and they may be time-limited or open-ended. Task group membership may be voluntary (a neighborhood taskforce on crime), appointed (a coalition consisting of representatives of homeless shelters), elected (a board of directors), or determined by roles (an interdisciplinary team consisting of all professionals serving a particular family). To the maximum extent possible, the membership should possess the skills and resources needed to accomplish the purpose for which the group was convened. For example, if a committee concerned about crime had no law enforcement personnel as members, it might seek out someone to fill that niche. As with therapeutic groups, those convening task groups should be alert to the characteristics of potential members and ensure that no member will be an isolate or an outlier. This consideration is particularly important when service consumers or their family members fill representative roles in a group consisting largely of professionals and service providers. Multiple representatives from consumer or family organizations should be included in committee membership, thereby ensuring that they are empowered and that their positions move beyond a token role. The leadership of task groups is usually explicitly chosen and may be selected by the group itself or by an outside entity (voting for president of a professional organization or student government). The stages of group development observed in treatment settings will also occur in task groups, though not necessarily in a linear fashion. As groups take on new issues and membership changes, the group may cycle back to revisit earlier stages. Further, the nature of task groups is such that the two middle phases (intimacy and differentiation) may not be distinguishable, and thus may be conceptualized as the "working phase" of the group.?