Activities for Mental Health Groups

Choosing the Best Activity for Your Mental Health Group:

When choosing the best activity for your population of clients, take into account where the patients are currently. Build the clients to where you want them by choosing activities in the best order. For example, discussion groups work best once clients are comfortable talking with each other and are functioning well as a group. Games can help break the ice if you need to get them to that point.

If your population is unable to focus for long periods of time, using an activity that is less attention-demanding is best. Or, using a highly-engaging format will give the clients the extra focus you need to teach them.

Activities for Kids

Games, crafts, and role-playing are a few of the best activities for kids. Within just these three types of activities, you can do many different variations. These activities can also be useful with adults in some circumstances.

Games:

1. Board Games: Order one or make up a board game. There are many different ways to modify board games to be therapeutic. The easiest way is by creating your own cards with questions to replace the cards that come with the game.
2. Cooperation Games: Cooperation activities include problem solving and team building tasks. Gym activities allow cooperation activities to be conducted on a large scale.
3. Trivia Games: Trivia games are great for learning information or memorizing. Use a trivia game if you need kids to learn something well at a shallow level.
4. Pictionary or Charades Games: Getting kids to draw or act out things includes their motor movement into the learning process.

Arts and Crafts:

1. Create a Book or Brochure: Split the kids into small groups to work on a book about any topic. Provide them with reference materials in needed, but set clear guidelines for the quality of work.
2. Coloring: For very young children, coloring is a great way to get them focused on therapy topics. Have pictures of good behaviors and bad behaviors, and then ask them to color all the pictures of good behavior.
3. Collage: A collage can be created individually or in groups. The variety of topics you can use is wide. Family therapy group collages can help clients and family members identify strengths and commonalities.
4. Origami: Young kids love folding paper. While you are folding with clients, it's a great time to talk about what to do when mistakes are made or how to deal with frustration. Origami takes patience, having a vision and following directions.

Role Playing:

1. Anger Coping Skills Role-Play: Before doing the role-play, have the kids identify a real anger trigger that can be part of the role play. Then ask them to identify warning signs for their anger. Finally, ask them to put it all together with the coping skills that they want to practice. So, they will role play in this order... Anger Trigger -->Anger Warning Signs -->Anger Coping Skill.
2. Role Play Communication: This one works like the coping skill role-play, only the clients will practice using communication with others to handle the problem. Teach the kids to use humor or assertiveness to communicate calmly.

Discussion Activities

Discussion activities are useful if these are your goals:

• Increase interest in the topic
• Assess prior knowledge and understanding
• Improve communication skills about difficult topics
• Create curiosity around a subject
• Improve readiness to change