By Ciara Placentino
I’ve delivered behaviour change programmes for several years, and have experience delivering 1:1 and as a group, as well as online and in-person. There are benefits and downsides to these different formats which are important to consider when managing programme delivery.
Advantages of group delivery:
- Group delivery enables a more efficient use of resources as delivers to many people at once, whereas 1:1 delivery requires more time, cost, and staff per participant.
- Being in a group with people with similar experiences can help participants feel less alone on their change journeys, and group members can support and advise each other in a way that can feel more relatable. Working 1:1 can be challenging when practitioner and participant do not yet have a well-developed working relationship or if participants hold adverse attitudes towards authority, which can prevent them from fully trusting practitioners’ support. Contrarily, in a group environment, participants can challenge each other, which can support behavioural change within participants who are more resistant to authority.
- Groups are typically delivered by 2-3 co-facilitators. As a practitioner, having a co- can help support delivery and it can benefit participants (especially those on DA interventions) for practitioners to model a pro-social relationship.
- Whilst working 1:1 allows for deeper exploration, this can be intense and draining for both practitioners and participants and can put practitioners at higher risk of emotional burnout.
Advantages of 1:1 delivery:
- 1:1 delivery provides a more private environment, where the practitioner and participant can develop a stronger therapeutic relationship, trust, and rapport. In a group environment, participants may not feel as comfortable to be open and honest for fear of judgment from the group.
- Working 1:1 allows for a more tailored and personalised approach and deeper emotional exploration. It is also easier to gauge a participant’s understanding and support them with any misunderstandings in a 1:1 format as opposed to group delivery. Given this, working 1:1 is often better suited for high-risk, mentally ill, and hard-to-engage participants.
- Whilst group dynamics can have their benefits, they can also be challenging to manage– something that isn’t a consideration when working 1:1. Group members may take on different ‘roles’ in a group, such as being the ‘joker’/‘class clown’ or dominating conversation as an ‘alpha’. This can mean some participants have less opportunity to be heard, can disrupt learning, and can negatively influence other participants’ engagement. If practitioners are constantly needing to challenge behaviours within the group, it can risk the group session appearing classroom-like which can further deter engagement from participants who have negative views/experiences of school and authority and can negatively impact the therapeutic relationship.
- 1:1 delivery allows for more flexibility in arranging appointments and addressing barriers to attendance, as participants are not limited to prescripted group session times. Whilst in theory, group delivery appears to be more operationally efficient, when participants miss sessions it can create an additional and unprecedented workload for practitioners.
Advantages of online delivery:
- Delivering interventions online is more timely, cost-effective, efficient, and flexible, and minimises practical barriers to attending in-person. From an organisational point of view, it also allows practitioners to be hired based on merit irrespective of their location.
- If a participant is aggressive towards a practitioner, online delivery is safer.
- Doing sessions from their own home can help some participants feel more comfortable to engage and be open. It can particularly benefit individuals with neurodiversity or accessibility needs for whom travelling to an unfamiliar location and attending in-person could be challenging.
Advantages of in-person delivery:
- Working face-to-face can help mitigate certain difficulties online delivery poses. For example, in-person you can fully see the participant and be in the same environment, which enables you to better gauge attitudes and engagement from their body language. It’s also beneficial from a safeguarding point of view, as you have the security of knowing they are in a confidential space; participants may say they’re alone when online when there could be someone else there off-camera.
- It is easier to cater to different learning styles in-person, such as being kinasthetic, whereas online delivery can be less interactive.
- When delivering in a group, it is easier to support participants completing individual worksheets when in-person as opposed to online.
- Working in-person mitigates any barriers technical difficulties or digital poverty may pose.
To summarise, there are benefits and drawbacks to all of these approaches, and it is important for practitioners to consider what would best suit their service users.
