The Use of Group Work with New York City Firefighters Post-9/11 (original) (raw)

The post-9/11 period demonstrated the need of persons to reach out to each other. Group work has always recognized the power of thinking group to address the service needs of persons. Marchini's chapter discusses how group work was used to support individual firefighters assigned to work with the families of firefighters who died at the twin towers. The intensity of providing the families with both resources and emotional support takes a personal tool. Thus these individuals were brought together in a group to provide them with the emotional support needed and a place where knowledge of existing resource could be shared. The chapter highlights how context, specifically the mutual aid tradition among firefighters and an atmosphere of crisis, can lead to an accelerated movement through the phases of group development.