A Bereavement Support Group for Pediatric HIV/AIDS Case Managers and Social Workers: Helping Members Cope with Dying Children

This article describes how an HIV/AIDS bereavement support group for case managers and social workers helped group members to cope psychologically with emotionally traumatizing work. The group helped reduce staff burn out and attrition, and allowed members to identify with each other in essential ways. This is called “twinship” in self psychology. Through twinship, members gained the emotional strength to face the sickness, physical deterioration and death of HIV-infected children. As a result, they were able to advocate more effectively for their clients. Social work policy and practice implications based on an assessment of this group experience are examined.