Social Supporters and Behaviour Therapists: Three Studies on the Form and Function of their Help

Abstract

Growing interest in the form and function of "social support" led to three small studies involving comparisons between behaviour therapists and social supporters (hair stylists) in terms of the help they provided with clients' emotional problems. The first compared observations of both groups in interaction with their routine clients, finding some overlap in their speech form (e.g. "reassurance") but that overall the groups provided significantly different forms of help. The second study, based on a questionnaire survey, yielded similar results on the form of interactions between these groups and suggested in addition that their functions were distinctive. Together, these studies indicated that therapists and stylists differed in the form and the function of their helping work with clients. The final study went on to examine how behaviour therapists could help stylists to develop their social support role, finding a significant training effect and evidence of its generalization to clients. Implications drawn include enhancing the distinctive role of behaviour therapists in such "community care" interventions.

Quality Assurance in the Voluntary Sector

“…To illustrate, in the USA, Cowen [3] surveyed a variety of social support agents (hairdressers, bartenders, work supervisors and divorce lawyers) and found evidence of significant amounts of help provided, in relation to the clients' emotional problems. In the UK we have extended this work by examining the impact that training in social support has on hairdressers and their clients [4].…”

Large-Scale Health Promotion Stress Workshops for the General Public: A Controlled Evaluation

“…It can be argued that, given the sheer scale of the problem, only large-scale interventions can have a significant impact. Milne, Cowie, Gormly, White and Hartley (1992) have asserted that ''to achieve mental health service objectives, there needs to be a concerted shift towards the kind of interventions that reach large numbers of relevant clients with the minimum of effort. To reach large numbers, there needs to be a massive increase in therapists or developments in the way we try to help clients''.…”

A comparison of four methods for assessing natural helping ability

“…), or ''facilitating-doing'' social support services for others (e.g., Patterson & Memmott, 1992). Other researchers have found that the skills used by natural/lay helpers differ subtly from that of professionals (e.g., Milne, Cowie, Gormly, White, & Hartley, 1992;Nagel, Hoffman, & Hill, 1995;Reisman & Yamokoski, 1974;Toro, 1986;Tracey & Toro, 1989), although no differences have been found in the effectiveness of natural and professional helpers (e.g., Strupp & Hadley, 1979).…”