Support Group - Michigan Diabetes Outreach Network

How Professionals Can Interact With
Community Support Groups
Roger T. Williams, University of Wisconsin – Madison
The relationship between professionals and community support groups is a very tenuous one.
Some professionals, because of their specialized knowledge and tendency to take charge, often
jump in and try to control what goes on within community support groups. The result is
predictable – the group will either become dependent and fail to develop the necessary internal
leadership or it will oust the professional in a rather dramatic way. More than one confused
professional has been overheard mumbling, “What went wrong? All I wanted to do was help!”
Other professionals, sensitive to the issues of group autonomy and internal leadership, stand on
the sidelines and hope for the best. They desperately want to see the group get off the ground, but
they don’t know how to contribute without wrestling control from the group. In some of these
cases, the group materializes and flourishes because the requisite internal leadership evolves on
its own. In other cases, the group fails to materialize and the professional finds himself/ herself
agonizing over the question, “What could I have done to make it happen?”
The issue of professional involvement is, indeed, a thorny one. The effective professional
recognizes that the experimental knowledge of the group is much more important than his/ her
professional knowledge and thus, resists imposing this knowledge on the group. He/ she also
recognizes that the group is not likely to be totally rational or objective - there may be a great
deal of emotional involvement including personal stories, tears, angry outbursts, hugs, and
apologies for “acting so stupid.” Finally, the effective professional realizes that leadership must
emerge from within the group and he/ she accepts the fact that this is not always going to
happen.
The most appropriate role might be viewed as that of midwife. A midwife assists in bringing a
new baby into the world and then helps to nurture it in the first hours of its life. But the midwife
doesn’t take the extra step of mothering or parenting the child. The goal is to get the natural
mother or parents to take on this role as soon after birth as possible.
What other roles or functions are appropriate for professionals? The roles vary according to the
developmental phase of the group.
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