{"id":6208,"date":"2021-02-19T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T18:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ilnodogroup.it\/metodo\/gruppi-balint\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T18:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:00:36","slug":"gruppi-balint","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ilnodogroup.it\/en\/metodo\/gruppi-balint\/","title":{"rendered":"Balint Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row gap=”30″ leaf_row_scheme=”0″][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]B<\/span>alint groups \u2013 which are named after their creator, Michael Balint \u2013 are a group work method for doctors and members of the other care and helping professions. The aim of these groups is to educate practitioners about the psychological dimension of their relationships with patients, with a view to enhancing both their role as carers and their professional well-being.<\/p>\n

Born in Budapest in 1896, Michael Balint \u2013 the son of a family doctor \u2013 worked briefly as a biochemist after completing a degree in medicine. He trained in the psychoanalytic method under Sandor Ferenczi, a student of Freud\u2019s, and practised as an analyst in Budapest until 1939, when he moved to England as a refugee. After the war, he took up a position at the Tavistock Clinic in London, where from the early 1950s, he and his second wife, Enid, began to work on the training of GPs<\/strong>, leading to the development of the Balint groups. Balint\u2019s most important work, The Doctor, His Patient<\/strong>, and the Illness<\/strong>, was published in 1957, and ever since, the training of British family doctors has reflected the influence of his ideas.<\/p>\n

The Balint group<\/strong> is a tried and tested group training method, originally devised for the psychological training of family doctors and subsequently adapted to meet the needs of other practitioners. While it originated within a model of care based on the doctor-patient<\/strong> dyad, it has evolved over time in response to the profound changes that \u2013 in recent decades \u2013 have transformed medicine, primary care, and welfare, and consequently the work of the family doctor: more specifically, the care relationship now encompasses a set of relationships involving dyads, groups and networks<\/strong><\/em>, and has become more complex and demanding, both professionally and emotionally.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4879″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]The conceptual assumptions informing the \u201cBalint method<\/strong>\u201d are as follows:<\/p>\n

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  1. the most frequently prescribed \u201cdrug\u201d is the doctor in person, whose \u201cpharmacology<\/strong>\u201d however is largely unknown;<\/li>\n
  2. although much of the work of family doctors and other practitioners has to do with \u201cpsychological<\/strong>\u201d cases, no specific training in this domain is provided at medical school<\/strong>;<\/li>\n
  3. medicine<\/strong> is strongly focused on disease and symptoms, but much less on the person who is ill, and practically not at all on the carer-patient relationship<\/em>, although issues in this relationship frequently cause dissatisfaction and anxiety in both parties to it, and frequently lead to diagnostic and therapeutic errors;<\/li>\n
  4. experience, common sense, and good will<\/strong> are not enough to make a good care professional;<\/li>\n
  5. the modern healthcare system requires practitioners to possess new emotional and relational skills<\/strong>, without which their work can be ineffective, unsafe, and overwhelming.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Originally aimed primarily at family doctors in light of their specific work, which is based on long-term care relationships that can be intimate and emotionally intense, the approach has been extended and adapted to hospital doctors, nurses, health technicians, medical students, psychologists, social workers, educators, and even magistrates, teachers, and managers of social services and healthcare institutions. In general terms, the method has proved useful for all the helping professions, given its focus on:<\/p>\n