Self‐help groups: The members' perspectives
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TL;DR
The results of this study suggest that self-help groups serve a different population than do professional therapists, that the help-giving processes are mainly supportive in nature, and that an optimistic attitude toward increased collaboration between professional care-givers and self- help groups is justified.
Abstract
The emergence of self-help groups as an important source of help-giving for persons with psychological problems has occurred without a systematic attempt to tap an important source of information about this phenomenon: the members themselves. Eighty members of nine self-help groups were surveyed. The results of this study suggest that self-help groups serve a different population than do professional therapists, that the help-giving processes are mainly supportive in nature, and that an optimistic attitude toward increased collaboration between professional care-givers and self-help groups is justified. Questions for further research are discussed.