For my journal review, I decided to talk about a little more sensitive topic, and how group therapy can be an effective intervention to use with a particular population. I found an article entitled State of the Science: Group Therapy Interventions for Sexually Abused Children which was an interesting read to say the least. According to the article, 16–27% of females and 8–16% of males retrospectively report child sexual abuse (CSA)  incidents.. that is a staggering statistic to me, which makes me wonder how OT can enter into especially if there is a significant population that needs critical psychological and traumatic care. The article listed multiple long-term effects of CSA on children that follow them long after their childhoods... many of them experience occupational imbalance, PTSD, and "negative life orientation, which impacts both their functioning and occupations as they grow up. So what can be done? well this article specifically looked at the effects of social support in the form of group therapy, and how it could impact the trajectory of these CSA children's lives. There are several immediate benefits to this approach: 1. it is more cost effective 2. children may feel safer in a group rather than in one on one therapy and 3. its major impact on therapeutic impact on several of the effects listed above. Group therapy provides another dimension to recovery which may not necessarily be addressed in one on one therapy sessions. The major conclusion that this article came to was that group therapy sessions are indeed an incredible effective intervention for children who have experienced as CSA. Within a group, group members can process life events together and fight the shame and stigma that is often associated with sexual abuse. This provides a safe processing space for these children, which truly could have a significant impact on those later effects that are often seen after childhood traumas. Even though this was technically an article posted by nurses ,
this article gave a lot of food for thought, and I definitely think that this subject falls under our OT practice.   OT's are trained to lead group sessions with individuals from all different walks of life and backgrounds, and could really bring in a therapeutic use of occupation while working with a group like this.  I am posting the link below so that more of my classmates can read up on this subject as well.
http://www.psychiatricnursing.org/article/S0883-9417(13)00114-3/fulltext