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Group Design and Curriculum

Module 9: Designing and Facilitating Rehabilitation Groups · Lesson 1 of 3

13 min Back to module

Story opener

Thursday, 4:40 p.m. A participant is sitting across from you, your supervisor wants three notes before you leave, and the answer you need is not in any binder on the shelf. This lesson is the part of the job nobody handed you in orientation.

Learning objectives

  • Be able to every session needs its own objective and practice rep
  • Be able to members join by goal match, not by availability

Lesson

A group without a curriculum becomes a waiting room.

Define the target skill, session sequence, materials, and a per-session objective. Cap size to allow every member at least one practice rep. Open groups need each session to stand alone; closed groups can build across weeks.

Recruit by goal match. Members should be able to say why this group serves their plan.

Maryland guidance & authority labels

Every statement below is labeled so you know what is binding regulation, what is only proposed, what is professional guidance, and what is our house standard.

  • COMAR — current

    Group services still require individualized documentation: what this participant did, toward which objective, with what response.

  • Internal best practice

    Never paste the same group note into eight charts. Write the shared curriculum once and the individual response eight times.

Common mistakes

  • Describing what you did without describing what the participant did.

    Do this instead — Record the intervention and the participant's observable response to it.

  • Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice.

    Do this instead — Let the required elements shape the session itself, so documentation writes itself.

Practical examples

Practical example

Instead of 'met with participant to discuss goals,' write: 'Reviewed the transportation objective; participant identified the #22 route unassisted and named one back-up plan. Verbal prompt needed once. Next session: practice the transfer at Mondawmin.'

Key takeaways

  • Every session needs its own objective and practice rep
  • Members join by goal match, not by availability

Reflection prompts

  1. 1Which part of this lesson describes something you are already doing differently in practice?
  2. 2What would an auditor see in your last five notes that contradicts this standard?

Bring your answers to supervision — the case-study workspace in this module saves written notes to your account.

Knowledge check

4 questions drawn from a bank of 7 · 75% to pass · instant feedback on every answer

1. Ten group notes that are identical except for names will most likely be:

2. A colleague does this: Describing what you did without describing what the participant did. What should they do instead?

3. A colleague does this: Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice. What should they do instead?

4. Which statement is a key takeaway from "Group Design and Curriculum"?