Self-Help Groups

7 Key excerpts on "Self-Help Groups"

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  eBook - PDF

  The Evolution of Self-Help

  How a Health Movement Became an Institution

  • M. Archibald(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  These small group structures are (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1987): self-governing groups whose members share a common concern and give each other emotional support and material aid, charge either no fee or only a small fee for membership, and place a high value on expe- riential knowledge in the belief that it provides special understanding of a situation. In addition to providing mutual support for their mem- bers, such groups may also be involved in information, education, material aid, and social advocacy in their communities. Critical elements of these groups entail: a common problem that allows members to identify with one another and facilitates cognitive restructuring; the helper principle in which the helper is helped by helping others; a support network through which group members provide social, emotional, and sometimes material support via meet- ings, telephone calls, newsletters, conferences, and nowadays, the Internet; shared information, so that knowledge is produced and exchanged within the organization; nominal or nonexistent costs; unconditional love that involves the nonjudgmental acceptance of others in the group; and equality among members based on experience Defining Self-Help 27 of the personal stigmatizing condition or problem (Hedrick, Isenberg, and Martini 1992). In short, self-help promotes a philosophy of self-determination based on an intimate, experiential understanding of the focal problem of the group. Membership is often (though not always) limited to those who experience some kind of physical or psychological condition of a stigmatizing or marginalizing nature, or who are related to those who do. As researchers who study sickness and health note, mental and physical crises throw people out of their ordinary lives, and illness erodes the taken-for-granted continuity in life.

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  Groups in Community and Agency Settings

  • Niloufer M. Merchant, Carole J. Yozamp(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  However, the mushrooming of self-help and support groups in the past four decades has been a force to reckon with, leading to recognition of their usefulness in addition to counseling and therapy, or even as the sole form of mental health delivery (Riordan & Beggs, 1987). The rise of the self-help and support group movement points to an immense unmet need in relationship to interacting with “fellow sufferers,” as well as providing a means for transference of knowledge to problem solving and a platform for advocacy (Kurtz, 1997). 32 BOOK 8 GROUPS IN COMMUNITY AND AGENCY SETTINGS What Are Support and Self-Help Groups, and How Are They Different From Counseling and Therapy Groups? _________________ The terms support and self-help are often blurred, sometimes seen as one and the same, and other times viewed as distinct forms of help. The waters have been muddied further by the evolving nature and expanded use of self-help and support groups in the past four decades. The increased use of tech-nology, the advent of managed-care systems, and the abundance of such groups in the medical, educational, and psychological fields have changed the availability of and access to resources. Even so, some defining features may distinguish the different types of groups. A self-help group, according to Kurtz (1997), is a “ supportive, educa-tional, usually change-oriented mutual-aid group that addresses a single life problem or condition shared by all members ” (p. 4). Leadership may emerge rather than being designated. Generally, members, including the group leader, are experiencing or have experienced conditions or difficulties that brought the group together (Riordan & Beggs, 1987). Professionals are seldom involved in leading the groups unless they are members. Groups are often structured and involve specific methods of help in ameliorating the problem or condition. The purpose of the self-help group may be to bring about change at the individual and/or societal level (Kurtz, 1997).

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  Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology

  Group Processes

  • Michael A. Hogg, Scott Tindale, Michael A. Hogg, Scott Tindale(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Emotional release has been identified by some as a great benefit of groups, but others suggest that “blowing off steam” may actually heighten members’ psychological distress and upset (see Ormont, 1984). Therapeutic Groups 647 Altruism Group approaches to treatment, unlike individualistic methods, capitalize and exploit people’s natural tendency to seek help from peers and friends first, and professional ther-apists second. When individuals experience problems, they usually turn to friends and families for help (Wills & DePaulo, 1991). Individuals experiencing work-related stress cope by joining with coworkers rather than human resource specialists (Caplan, Vinokur, Price, & van Ryn, 1989; Cooper, 1981). Psychotherapy groups include an expert leader, but they also include peers who offer insights and advice to one another. This mutual assistance provides benefits for both parties, for the helper “feels a sense of being needed and helpful; can forget self in favor of another group member; and recognizes the desire to do something for another group member” (Crouch et al., 1994, p. 285). Self-Help Groups place mutual assistance among members at center-stage. Such groups usually resist the leadership of a professional, and instead insist that members help them-selves and one another. A support group that deals with psychological consequences of open-heart surgery, for example, tells members that “you are not completely mended until you help mend others” (Lieberman, 1993, p. 297). AA groups formalize and structure helping by pairing newcomers with sponsors who meet regularly with the new member outside of the regular group meetings. Insight Many individuals feel that mental health and self-knowledge are highly correlated; that only people who know themselves well are truly normal and well-adjusted.

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  Group Dynamics

  • Donelson Forsyth(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Families, friends, and professional care-givers such as physicians and therapists are excellent sources of help and information in stressful, difficult circumstances, but some individuals ’ social net-works may be too worn, too fragile, or too inexpe-rienced to provide them with the solace they require. Sometimes, too, individuals may not wish to reveal their problems and their needs to their intimates and would prefer to unburden themselves with others who are knowledgeable but more objective and hence will be less likely to judge them harshly. In such circumstances, people join with others in support groups: voluntary groups whose members share a common problem and meet for the purpose of exchanging social support (Scogin & DiNapoli, 2016). Types of Support Groups Support groups go by a variety of names, including mutual aid groups and mutual help groups . They are frequently called Self-Help Groups , even though members of such groups are deliberately encouraged to rely on other group mem-bers for help and to provide those others with assis-tance in return. These groups meet at a wide variety of locations in the community, including churches, schools, universities, and private homes. They also meet, in some cases, using the Internet. Internet sup-port groups provide individuals with advice, support, and information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These groups generally began when individuals facing similar problems decided to share informa-tion with and support for one another. Because they are problem-focused, there are as many differ-ent support groups as there are specific problems that people encounter. However, most support groups fall into one of the four categories summa-rized in Table 16.2: mental and physical health, family and life transitions, advocacy, and addiction (Silverman, 2010).

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  Stammering Resources for Adults and Teenagers

  Integrating New Evidence into Clinical Practice

  • Trudy Stewart(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  9Working with Self-Help Groups

  Hilary Liddle and Bob Adams

  Introduction

  A contemporary text on therapy for adults who stammer would be incomplete without a focus on Self-Help Groups. The following chapter provides background information about Self-Help Groups for adults who stammer, including their historical context. It also explains the many benefits of self-help group membership, explores the role of the SLT in relation to Self-Help Groups and discusses the differences between self-help and therapy groups. Drawing on the authors’ experiences of working with a large, active self-help group in the north of England, the chapter gives advice and practical suggestions about how an SLT can work in collaboration with Self-Help Groups in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for group participants.

  What is a self-help group?

  Of the many definitions of Self-Help Groups, the one which is both recognised by the World Health Organisation and widely accepted is Katz and Bender’s (1976):

  Self-Help Groups are voluntary, small group structures for mutual aid and the accomplishment of a special purpose. They are usually formed by peers who have come together for mutual assistance in satisfying a common need, overcoming a common handicap or life-disrupting problem and bringing about desired social and/or personal change … they are frequently ‘cause’ orientated, and promulgate an ideology or values through which members may attain an enhanced sense of personal identity.

  (p. 278)

  Historical context

  The development of Self-Help Groups for people who stammer can be understood within the broader context of the self-help movement. The concept of self-help is generally thought to have originated with the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 (Adamsen and Rasmussen 2001). The self-help movement, driven by the growth in consumerism, gained momentum during the mid-1960s (Ramig 1993). In the 1970s, dissatisfaction with healthcare systems, as they became less patient centred, contributed to further expansion of the self-help movement (Trichon and Raj 2018). During this time, there were somewhat adversarial relationships between self-help and professional communities (Reeves 2006). By the end of the 20th century, self-help and professional communities were working cooperatively in a climate of mutual understanding (Reeves 2006), and there had been a dramatic increase in the number of people participating in Self-Help Groups. In the United States, for example, 25 million people had previously participated in Self-Help Groups (Kessler, Mickelson and Zhao 1997). Yalom and Leszcz (2005), in their discussion of the ubiquity of Self-Help Groups, comment that it is very hard to imagine any kind of ‘distress’ or ‘misfortune’ for which there is not a corresponding group.

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  Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling

  • Geri Miller(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  self-help group as a voluntary group where each member is both the helper and helpee. All of the Self-Help Groups reviewed seem to have some additional common factors: Each encourages (1) individuals to examine the need for a behavior change, (2) education of self about the addictive process as interpreted by the specific program, (3) some contact with others in similar situations, and (4) a personalization of the recovery process.

  Before asking questions to understand a client better, a sensitive therapist may experience empathy for a client attending a new self-help group by imagining the following scenario: You walk into a room of strangers, and, simply by entering the room, you are admitting that you have a problem that everyone in the room knows you have because you are there and this problem is one you have tried to address and failed. This sense of vulnerability and openness to strangers is commonly felt by individuals who are breaking an addictive pattern.

  Helping a client find a group requires counselors to have knowledge of their own theoretical orientation, knowledge of the self-help group's philosophy and availability, and knowledge of the client. Counselors are encouraged to spend some time determining the match of their theoretical orientation with the various self-help group philosophies. The availability of the various Self-Help Groups, both nationally and locally, may temper the use of them in counseling. The counselor and client may develop a mix-and-match approach in terms of combining various literature with available meetings. The caution here is that the counseling not overwhelm the client with recovery options and information.

  To facilitate a match to such a group, all counselors need to be sensitive to clients' self-help group experiences, lifestyles, and values in order to make the best match possible. In addition, the group needs to fit the client in terms of the client's stage of change as discussed in Chapter 9

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  Manual of Psychosocial Rehabilitation

  • Robert King, Chris Lloyd, Tom Meehan, Frank Deane, David Kavanagh, Robert King, Chris Lloyd, Tom Meehan, Frank Deane, David Kavanagh(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Part IV

  Peer Support and Self-Help

  Passage contains an image

  Chapter 14

  Peer Support in a Mental Health Service Context

  Lindsay Oades, Frank P. Deane and Julie Anderson

  Introduction

  This chapter will first summarise the range of definitions that have been provided for peer support, in a mental health context. Clarifications of the different aims of peer support initiatives and the potential psychological processes that underpin them are then provided. Three key forms that peer support groups may take are then described and we track Sam as he experiences peer support in the context of job seeking. A summary of existing empirical evidence for peer support groups is provided before examining some of the necessary tensions that may exist between the alternative views of those coming from inside the consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/x) movement perspective, and the traditional discourses based on the medical approach. A series of recommendations is then offered for those who are working or about to work within a peer support framework in mental health. The recommendations include things to do and things to avoid.

  Definitions of peer support

  There are several ways to conceptualise peer support. The working definition for this chapter is a process of mutual support where persons voluntarily come together to help each other address common problems or shared concerns (Davidson et al

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