Group work in the context of our time

Abstract

This work is part of the daily work carried out by the Hospital School of Mental Health of the Province of San Luis, Argentina, and it is our interest to briefly describe how it has been transformed into what it is today, to then understand a possible way of approaching situations of catastrophe and crisis. From this framework of institutional work we want to show that groupness arises as a need to accompany the interdisciplinary teams in decision-making, creating an open space for collective construction: the institution responsible for responding to the problems that the community presents; the institution that previously denied the existence of certain problems now finds new alternatives, deepens in the knowledge of them and passes from descriptive diagnoses to situational diagnoses. We use a group device based on groupal theories and we think that the therapeutic team and the institutions are considered a group. In relation to demand, we consider that there are several aspects to take into account: who demand (people, institutions, etc.); what type of demand they make and how demand is expressed. We will emphasize, how this device has allowed us to intervene in different situations of crisis, emergencies and in different social emergencies.