Facilitator Challenges

To be worked out and discussed

1. The support group has begun at 7:30 pm .  A person has come into the group late ( 7:50 pm ). This person continues to come to group late on a consistent basis.  How can the facilitator/leader deal with this situation "gracefully"?

2. A participant comes to the group on a regular basis.  Every time she comes to the group, she talks about how awful things are.  When other members share experiences and ideas that have helped them, the member "shoots down" everyone's ideas.  After this has occurred for months, other group members become frustrated.  Share some ideas of how to best handle this situation.

3. Two support group participants are chatting near the back of the room, and disturbing the support group flow.  These participants have been challenging to work with for a while.  How does the facilitator deal with this challenge?  How should group members deal with this challenge?

4. A new group member reluctantly decides to share a challenging situation that she is dealing with. As she is speaking, she is only looking at you, the facilitator. The attendee then asks you a question about how to deal with the dilemma. Again, the attendee is only looking at you and asking you the question.

5. The support group attendees always split into multiple support groups due to the large attendance. As one of the chapter facilitators, you are always ready to serve in case you are needed. As the groups are splitting up, you can hear people saying that they only want to be in your group and they called it by your name: “John’s group.”

6. A participant brings up his frustrations with his current medications and treatment plan.  A long time member of the group offers advice, suggesting a new treatment plan whenever this subject is raised.  How can the facilitator/leader (gracefully) remind the member treatment plans should be coordinated by health professionals and redirect the conversation?

7. A participant that is fairly new to the group, but has been consistently attending for the past few weeks, continually interrupts and cuts off the others in the group.  Sometimes she interrupts to respond to the situation about which the person is speaking, other times she changes the topic completely to something he/she finds more important to him/her. 

8. During support group meetings, most of “the regulars” always sit together, socialize together and interact mostly with each other.  Most conversation centers around long-time group members and their situations.  You notice that new people seem to feel excluded and ignored and often don’t come back (you think the above behavior has a lot to do with this).  How do you address this challenge?

9. Joan, a regular group member, is not at the meeting.  Another member reports that Joan is in the hospital and goes on to describe in detail how Joan ended up there, how she’s feeling, etc.  You aren’t so sure that Joan would want the group discussing her personal situation without Joan being there.  What do you do in the meeting?  How might your group address this issue on an ongoing basis?

10. A group member gets upset during the group and says she is starting a new chapter, that this one is not doing things right, and that she feels this group is harming people.  She starts recruiting people to come to her new group and leave yours.  She also uses the group contact list to recruit participants for her new group.  How do you lead your group through this challenge?