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The professional carers' group: supporting group work for young sexual abusers
S Griffin1, M Williams, C Hawkes
1Child and Family Department, Tavistock Clinic, London, England, UK.
Objective:
A centralized treatment project, for young people who have sexually abused others, describes how group-based work with potentially isolated local professionals may help a treatment program to maintain a systemic perspective.
Method:
The paper reviews relevant literature and outlines the context, format and goals of a Professional Carers' Group.
Results:
Recurring themes, observed during the 30-week treatment programs, are subjected to clinical analysis. Two key areas are discussed: (1) cognitive-emotional processing of common reactions to work with sexual abuse; and (2) inter-professional communication to balance the requirements of child protection and therapy.
Conclusion:
Concurrent work with local professional networks may promote the clinical effectiveness of a treatment program for young perpetrators of sexual abuse. A Professional Carers' Group is one relatively low-cost approach which may help to integrate the work of a central treatment facility with that of distant, community-based, agencies.