Mini-Groups: Maximizing the Therapeutic Milieu on an Acute Psychiatric Unit
Samuel H. Bailine M.D.1,
Helen K. Golden PH.D.1, and
Michael Katch M.S.W.2
1 Direct Admissions Unit Hillside Division Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center Glen Oaks, New York
2 Kingsbridge Heights Manor Bronx, New York
The authors have found small groups (called mini-groups) an effective way to work with patients who are too regressed or disturbed to benefit from individual psychotherapy and who find larger groups over-whelming and confusing. Mini-groups were formed in 1974 on a 20-bed acute inpatient service of a private psychiatric hospital, where traditional treatment approaches have been altered because of a more disturbed patient population and a shorter length of stay. A high staff-to-patient ratio, sometimes almost one to one, lends stability to the groups.
