Social Work Project: Group Overview for Postpartum Depression Support

This social work project outlines the overview of a support group designed for African American women experiencing postpartum depression. The group aims to address the unique challenges faced by these women, considering factors such as socioeconomic disparities, cultural influences, and limited access to emotional and instrumental support. The project details the group's purpose, which is to reduce depressive symptoms and facilitate open discussions about contributing factors. The group will consist of five mothers, a professional social worker, and a peer who has previously experienced postpartum depression, fostering a safe and cohesive environment. The group sessions, held in a hospital setting, will involve ice-breaking activities, discussions, mindfulness exercises, and goal setting, with the aim of supporting participants in their recovery journey and developing coping mechanisms. The project also provides references to relevant literature on postpartum depression in African American women. The assignment also includes a brief overview of the beginning stage, middle stage, and termination stage of the group sessions.

Running Head: SOCIAL WORK
Social Work (Overview)
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Overview
The focus of the group would be to provide help to the African American women who
are going through the phase of depression during the post-partum period. The various factors
that have contributed to their depression includes the ones of the socio economic disparities
along with the attributes of the culture as well as class. Due to the inhibiting factors they are
even distinct from receiving support in terms of emotional as well as instrumental
(Amankwaa, 2003).
The group is a support group, which has been created with the aim of reducing the
factors of depression among the women and discuss the factors that might have contributed
towards its development. The symptoms those make the fact quite elucidated that the
concerned person is suffering from depression includes that of the anxiety, variance in the
mood and irritability. In most of the cases it has been seen that the post partum depression
due to the Blue Babies they have given birth to. It has been seen that out of 1000 women 2
suffer from the psychosis of post partum. The aim of the group is to reduce the symptoms of
the post partum depression among the participants keeping in concern the individual context
of the participants (Amankwaa, 2003).
Group information
The group size has been kept limited to that of five in order to enhance the cohesion
of the group. Along with the five mothers looking for help, the group would also include a
social worker who is professional and a mother who has suffered from the depression. The
choice of the smaller group has been a deliberate choice in order to enhance the experience of
the individual.
Location

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The location of the group’s activity would be conducted in a hospital where the flyers
and the brochures would be used to mark the direction.
Duration
The total number of session would be three in number with each session continuing
for the duration of one hour.
Description
The members, who would participate in the group, include the ones who have been
referred by the doctors. The patient visiting the hospital would be scrutinized by the doctors
upon the traces of the depression if they are visible in the attribute of the person. The doctors
would be responsible for referring the patients to the support group. The session would flow
through a beginning course, a middle course and a termination course. The first section would
be concerned with the ice breaking session followed by a discussion and activities involving
the thought log.
The middle portion would be concerned with the discussion between the members of
the group where the communication would take place based on the mutual sharing of the
perspectives. It would continue to the discuss the implementation of mindfulness and deduce
time in order to get indulged in activities.

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References
Amankwaa, L. C. (2003). Postpartum depression among African-American women. Issues in
mental health nursing, 24(3), 297-316.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01612840305283
Amankwaa, L. C. (2003). Postpartum depression, culture and African-American
women. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 10(1), 23.
https://search.proquest.com/openview/4bc6d0310a57c19b73461515e93229e3/1?pq-
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