Activity 1.2 Group goals and rules

ACT Processes:

• Values

Objectives:

• To establish a set of collectively agreed principles and rules to guide individual behaviours within the intervention group
• To promote group safety, which is essential for meaningful participation
• To set parameters for individual behaviours between training sessions
• To promote group interactions that value everyone’s input

Participation Format:

• Participants sit in a large horseshoe and all of them take part in setting the ground rules and group goals

Number of Facilitators:

• 2

Time Required:

• 20 mins

Materials Required:

• Flip chart paper
• Markers(water-based to reduce allergies)
• Masking tape
• Overview of ACT intervention activities

Activities & Instructions

Setup

• Facilitator #1 leads the participants in identifying and agreeing on ground rules and Facilitator #2 writes these ground rules on flip chart paper.

Instructions for participants

1. Facilitator #1: “The next activity we are going to do is to collectively come up with a list of ground rules and guiding principles that we as a group will follow. How many of us here have heard of the term “ground rules”?
   Facilitator #1 acknowledges participants’ familiarity and unfamiliarity with the term “ground rules.”
2. Facilitator #1 continues: “In simple terms, ground rules are rules that we all agree upon and will be used to guide how we interact with each other throughout the training and also how we relate to each other between training sessions. Based on your previous group experience, you are invited to share grounds rules that you feel are important and useful to support us to function as a group.”
3. Facilitator #2 writes down participants’ suggestions of ground rule on flip chart paper.
4. Facilitator #1 clarifies with participants what they meant when participants name one or two words as a ground rule. For example, if a participant says: “Confidentiality;” Facilitator #1 will follows up by saying: “Yes, confidentiality. Can you say more about what you meant by confidentiality?”
5. Facilitator #1 reviews the list of ground rules suggested by participants at the end of the activity. A number of ground rules are essential for group interaction within the Strength in Unity Project. If participants have not mentioned the items on this list, Facilitator #1 will bring these up and establish them as ground rules.
6. Facilitator #2 posts the list of agreed upon ground rules on the wall of the training room, and says: “I am posting these ground rules on the wall here so that we can refer to them throughout all the training sessions. We will review these ground rules at the beginning of each training session. During the training, if you think of another ground rule that would support positive interaction among all of us as a group, we invite you to share it and we will add it to the list.”
7. Facilitator #1: The second part is to generate a list of Group Goals. We want to explore what you would like to get out of the group. You can share your personal goals in attending this group – i.e. how this may change or help you in your own life – or group goals – i.e. how you would like the group to achieve as a whole.
8. Facilitator #2: Writes down participants’ suggestions of ground rule on flip chart paper.
9. Where appropriate, facilitators may want to probe further to:
   1. turn vague goals about controlling thoughts & emotions into S.M.A.R.T. behavioural goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely)
      – e.g. “less anxiety/worries about having a mental illness” -> (Facilitator: “if you do have less anxiety/worries, what would you be able to do?”) -> “I would be able to speak to my friends again”)
   2. and (only) if time permits, explore underlying broader values behind goals:
      – e.g. “I want to know how to speak to my younger sister with schizophrenia, as we always end up arguing” -> (Facilitator: “why is this important to you?”) -> “I wish to have a closer, mutually respectful relationship with my sister and my family.”

Items to be included in the list of ground rules

• Confidentiality: “Everything personal that is shared in this room will remain in this room, that is, each one of us agree not to reveal any personal sharing to anyone outside of this group.”
  • Help the group distinguish the difference between personal information (names, detailed experiences, etc.) from generic teaching points that can be shared e.g. the ACT model, the effect of stigma, etc.
  • If it does not come up, address the issue of interactions outside the group e.g. greeting each other outside the group while maintaining confidentiality about how they met.
• Mutual respect: “Each one of us agree to respect each other as a fellow human being, and respect each other’s opinions and ideas, even when we may not agree with each other. This also means sharing time and giving each person the opportunity to share their ideas and opinions.”
• Use the “I” statement: “To demonstrate respect, we invite everyone to agree on using the “I” statement. This means each one of us agrees to take accountability for what we say and share. An example of an “I” statement is ‘I feel that most Asian children have lost their connections to their parents’ culture’.”
• Punctuality: “Since our goal is to learn together as a group within a limited set of time, what are you thoughts on punctuality?” (After participants define punctuality, Facilitator #2 summarizes on flip chart – “Punctuality: arriving on time, return from lunch and breaks on time.”)
• Homework: “An important component of our training is homework, or practicing the assigned activities between the training sessions. May we invite everyone to make a commitment in doing the homework activities?”
• Absence: “The ACT training in part of an intervention research, which means we are testing the effectiveness of ACT in promoting psychological flexibility and supporting us to address mental illness stigma. In order to evaluate ACT, all of us have to be here to go through the training. Therefore, the team has established that each participant cannot miss more than 2 hours of the entire ACT training. Anyone, who misses more than 2 hours of the training, would be considered disqualified from the project due to our research protocol. Does anyone have any question about this?” (Facilitators answer questions and queries.)
• Other items: cell phone on silence/vibrate, etc.