Social science research on self-help/mutual aid groups and organizations from 1960 on is reviewed. Voluntary peer-run mutually supportive groups’ diversity illustrated through Alcoholics Anonymous, mental health groups and others. Socio-political contexts shape self-help/mutual aid. Borkman’s autoethnographic narrative highlights her participation.
The contributors to this volume examine the role of mutual aid groups and social workers in helping members of oppressed, vulnerable, and resilient populations regain control over their lives. The chapters reveal the ways in which mutual aid processes help individuals overcome social and emotional trauma in contemporary society by reducing isolation, universalizing individual problems, and mitigating stigma. Using the life cycle as a framework the editors establish a theoretical model for practice and demonstrate how social workers as group leaders can foster the healing and empowering process of mutual aid. The contributors also consider the fundamentals of the mutual aid process, the institutional benefits of group service, and specific clinical examples of mutual aid groups. Each chapter offers detailed case materials that illustrate both group work skills and developmental issues for a variety of populations and settings, including HIV-positive and AIDS patients, the homeless, and perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse and family violence. New chapters in this completely revised and updated third edition illustrate the power of mutual aid processes in dealing with children traumatized by the events of September 11, adult survivors of sexual abuse, parents with developmentally challenged children, people with AIDS in substance recovery, and mentally ill older adults.
In this innovative book Fabio Folgheraiter presents a systematic introduction to networking and reflexive practice in social work. The text explores how the interested parties in social care can acquire a shared power in care planning and decision making and that when this networking occurs, the efficacy of caring initiatives increases.
Since 1989, clients with severe co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders have found experience, strength, and hope through the Twelve Step group Double Trouble in Recovery (DTR). Since 1989, clients with severe co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders have found experience, strength, and hope through the Twelve Step group Double Trouble in Recovery (DTR). This is the equivalent to the Alcoholics Anonymous Book for those dealing with severe mental illness and addiction. Priced economically for distribution to group members.
Self-help groups have encountered fierce criticism as places where individuals join to share personal problems and to engage in therapeutic intervention without the aid of skilled professionals. These groups have flourished since the 1970s and continue to serve more people than professional therapy. Yet these groups have been criticized as fostering a culture of whiners and victims, and not using professional help as needed. Thomasina Jo Borkman debunks this commonly held assessment, and also examines the reasons for these groups' enduring popularity since the 1960s--more people attend these meetings (word?) than see professional therapists. What accounts for their success and popularity? Understanding Self-Help / Mutual-Aid Groups is the first book to describe three stages of individual and group evolution that is part of this organization's very structure; it also reconceptualizes participants' interactions with professionals. The group as a whole, Borkman posits, draws on the life experiences of its membes to foster nurturing, support, and transformation through a "circle of sharing." Groups create more positive and less stigmatizing "meaning perspectives" of the members' problems than is available from professionals or lay folk culture.
Abstract: Eighteen authoritative essays prepared by experts in their respective fields of study for professional educators and community psychologists emphasizes the development of community psychology groups, methods, theories, and principles stemming from actual community research and practice. The essays are grouped among 3 principle themes: specific self-help, mutual-aid community groups reflecting various mental-health needs (including women, gays, drug abusers, abusing parents, the overweight, the physically disabled, and those who care for the aged); the role of professionals in self-help programs; and evaluations and assessments of self-help programs; and evaluations and assessments of self-help group needs. A closing essay discusses self-help groups from an international perspective. (wz).
Self-help organizations across the world, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Croix D'Or, The Links, Moderation Management, Narcotics Anonymous, and SMART Recovery, have attracted tens of millions of individuals seeking to address addiction problems with drugs or alcohol. This book provides an integrative, international review of research on these organizations, focusing in particular on the critical questions of how they affect individual members and whether self-help groups and formal health care systems can work together to combat substance abuse. Keith Humphreys reviews over 500 studies into the efficacy of self-help groups as an alternative and voluntary form of treatment. In addition to offering a critical review of the international body of research in this area, he provides practical strategies for how individual clinicians and treatment systems can interact with self-help organizations in a way that improves outcomes for patients and for communities as a whole.
Here is new information on the development of international and intercultural research on self-help groups. This book reflects the many developments which have occurred in the field over the past decade, emphasizing empirical research. Self-Help and Mutual Aid Groups provides specific research findings and honed concepts to help health professionals learn more about self-help groups and work effectively with such groups. More countries and ethnic groups are now involved in the self-help movement, and this volume increases knowledge of how different cultures react to and participate in self-help mutual aid and how self-help groups can be adapted to fit different racial or ethnic populations. Self-Help and Mutual Aid Groups explores the definition of self-help, the centrality of culture as a major factor explaining variability in self-help, the development of appropriate methodological tools, and the role and involvement of professionals. It brings together different traditions of research for the study of cross- and intercultural and inter- and intraorganizational aspects of self-help groups. Contributors who represent various disciplines, including psychology, sociology, social work, and nursing, discuss: a paradigm for research in self-help the development of self-help groups in Japan, Hong Kong, and the former East Germany the participation of blacks in Alcoholics Anonymous the participation of Mexican Americans in groups for parents of the mentally ill relationships between self-help groups and health professionals predictors of burnout in self-help group leaders characteristics of effective groups ways individuals change their world view through self-help participationSelf-Help and Mutual Aid Groups is an informative and helpful resource for self-help researchers and teachers, students, and professionals who want to be more effective in their work with self-help groups across cultural and national lines.
