Theme-Focused Group Therapy on a Pediatric Ward

Abstract

Hospitalization for children may be a traumatic experience which can result in varying degrees of depression and anxiety. To help children deal with their negative reactions to illness and hospitalization the departments of psychiatry and pediatrics at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York introduced a program of theme-focused group sessions for pediatric patients. The group concerned itself with issues of the hospital experience including 1) lack of, or distortion of, factual information, and 2) fantasies, fears and anxieties related to hospitalization. The group also served as a diagnostic tool by allowing the observation of children's reactions to their hospitalization; as an educational experience for non-psychiatric hospital personnel to learn about children's development and psychological functioning; and to reduce the anxiety level of the children, lessen hyperactivity, aggressiveness, and resistance to hospital procedures.

Group treatment of adolescents: An overview.

“…In inpatient settings, examples would be therapeutic community, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, art or dance therapy, as well as special education groups. There have also been reports in the literature of group sessions, held on pediatric wards, aimed at reducing the adolescent patient's anxieties and resistance to hospital procedures and at correcting distortions 5 . In residential schools for delinquents or neglected youths, milieu groups, behavior modification groups, or “rap” sessions are typical.…”

From the Literature

“…6 Characteristically, ever changing in line with the flux of medical admissions, these groups emphasized cathartic expressions of fears, corrections of anxieties and of distortions, provision of factual information, and, above all, companionship and mutual support. 7,8 At about the same time, psychoeducational groups for so-called "children-at-risk," made their appearance. Conceptualized within the context of…”