Group Counseling with Juveniles

Abstract

Group counseling is not a new technique in working with juvenile probationers. To date, however, such programs have usually involved leadership by professionally trained groupwork ers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, and the costs of these perma nent services have been prohibitive for most juvenile courts. To face the challenge of improving services to probationers, using existing resources, the Franklin County (Columbus, Ohio) Juve nile Court developed a limited group counseling program. After one year of operation, an evaluation of data led to three major observations: (1) probation officers without professional training in groupwork can function effectively in a limited group counsel ing program; (2) a substantial number of juvenile probationers can benefit significantly from this group counseling; and (3) the effectiveness of probation officers in handling a heavy caseload, and the quality of probation services offered by them, can be much improved by use of group counseling as a supervisory technique.