From Clinic to Community: The Evolution of a Group for Women with Postpartum Mental Illness

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The present paper is based on a keynote address given at the International Social Work in Health and Mental Health Conference in Hong Kong in December 2006. It provides a reflective description of pioneering groupwork practice in a mental health service in the mid-1970s. The paper explores the transition in the unit of attention from the mother's mental illness to the mother–child relationship, and describes the evolution of a therapeutic group into a self-sustaining social network that has continued for over three decades. Four key implications for contemporary social work practice are identified.