Mutual Aid Research Articles

Another Provision: Co-Designing Communal Food Infrastructures in East London

We describe a participatory art/research project envisioning alternative infrastructures enabling food as a Universal Basic Service in the context of food poverty and the cost of living crisis. The four-year process involving people who have received food aid as well as food activists was co-produced with the National Food Service, a mutual aid group trialling new models for a more just food system. Modelling our creative research on this group’s careful engagement to build communal structures based on a “solidarity not charity” model of mutual care, we devised a process of infrastructural co-design and creative visioning for more just urban food futures. We reflect on the interplay of physical and social infrastructures and the role of food in care and mutual aid settings.

Impact of Family Mutual Aid System for Personal Medical Insurance Accounts on Paediatric Patients' Outpatient Utilisation Patterns and Costs: a difference-in-differences analysis.

This study explores the effect of the transformation of paediatric healthcare through the implementation of the Family Mutual Aid System (FMAS) for personal medical insurance accounts, among paediatric patients at a children's hospital (Hospital A in Shanghai, China). We conducted a cohort study in the endocrinology department of Hospital A from August 2021 to July 2023 to assess the impact of the FMAS enrolment on patients' annual outpatient visits, annual outpatient expenditures, and the allocation of these costs among the Basic Medical Insurance Pooling Fund and patients' out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses, with a further subdivision into online and offline consultations. Analysis employed a weighted Difference-in-Differences approach within a fixed-effects model following Propensity Score Matching. The study encompassed 10,975 paediatric patients, divided into those enrolled in the FMAS (observation group) and those not (control group). Enrolment in FMAS was associated with a statistically significant increase in annual outpatient visits by an average of 1.107, predominantly attributed to an uptick in offline consultations. Additionally, there was a substantial 38.9% rise in annual outpatient costs. Detailed analysis revealed a 52.5% increase in costs covered by the medical insurance pooling fund, while patients' OOP expenses decreased by an average of 69.2%. These findings highlight the beneficial effects of FMAS enrolment on healthcare service utilization and risk-sharing mechanisms of medical insurance.

“I Have One More Hour of Power and Many Miles of Communication to Go”: Lessons Learned from Community Research Interrupted by Climate Crises

The Ang Pagtanom og Binhi Project is a University–Community partnership and community-based participatory research project exploring the health benefits of food sovereignty practices in the Philippines. In late 2021, in the midst of data collection, Super Typhoon Odette made landfall in the Philippines causing massive environmental and structural devastation. In the aftermath of the storm, community partners in the Philippines and members of the research team in the United States shared photos, texts, and updates. These messages included descriptions of structural and environmental damage caused by the storm and stories of mutual aid efforts and actions taken by individuals and small organizations, each highlighting connections between food sovereignty efforts in the Philippines and the impacts of climate change. Due to the richness of the stories, the interconnectedness between these conversations and the research topic, and the alignment within the theoretical foundations of the project, the researchers understood that these communications should be included as data. With feedback from the Community Advisory Board, the Research and Design Team amended project protocols, research questions, and consent forms to incorporate this emergent data. This manuscript describes the process that the team undertook and some of the lessons learned by taking this approach.

Equal Compensations Under Actuarially Fair Contributions In Endowment Contingency Funds

This paper considers risk-sharing schemes, aiming to demonstrate that it is possible to enforce equal compensations by charging actuarially fair contributions. Specifically, consider a group of individuals exposed to the occurrence of a predefined event with adverse financial consequences such as death, survival or being diagnosed with a critical illness for instance. All members of the group agree to contribute in advance a fixed amount to a pool constituted over a reference period with the understanding that the sum of the contributions is shared in arrear among those participants having experienced the predefined event. This allocation is either uniform among claiming participants, each one receiving an equal share of total contributions, or participants are offered the choice to select a desired protection level. In the latter case, participants are free to subscribe one or several units of protection from the fund, and the total amount collected in advance is shared in arrear, equally among all units held by those participants who experienced the predefined event. Endowment contingency funds aim to provide participants with a cheap and effective protection compared to commercial insurance. The reason is that the proposed system is fully funded so that there is no risk borne by the organizer. The benefits in case the event occurs are therefore random but the volatility of the terminal payouts turns out to be limited when the number of participants gets large enough. Under independence, insurance at fair price is recovered at the limit, within infinitely large pools. As an application, the paper considers mutual aid funds and survivor funds. A comparison with takaful insurance is performed.

Facility location and restoration games

Effective recovery of interdependent infrastructure systems after natural disasters requires coordination between multiple infrastructure owners, such as power and telecommunications utilities. If infrastructure owners make restoration decisions in isolation from one another, then recovery may be piecemeal. A fundamental understanding of these interdependencies can provide insights to incentivize shared restoration that benefit all infrastructure users, with the goal to maximize the social welfare even in a non-cooperative setting. We introduce a non-cooperative facility location and restoration game on a layered network, where each layer belongs to a player, to model the recovery of interdependent infrastructure systems after disasters. The goal of the model is to plan short term post-disaster recovery. The players want to minimize the cost to satisfy their own demand by restoring network components, and each player can serve the other players’ demands if they are paid a fee to do so. We propose exact and approximate algorithms to set incentives (fees) so that the players’ actions at equilibrium are aligned with a social optimum of the system, which minimizes the total cost. We present a case study in which we consider the recovery efforts of telecommunication infrastructure companies and provide results for the facility location and restoration games. The models and proposed algorithms can be used to set policy, inform the structure of inter-agency mutual aid partnerships to support disaster recovery, and negotiate inter-agency usage fees prior to a disaster to ease shared recovery efforts.

Rigbo: eliciting an Indigenous framework for social group work practice

ABSTRACT This article is an attempt to critically analyze and document the rigbo – a group work framework in the context of the larger call to Indigenize social work practices. The article explores “rigbo culture” of the Mising community in Assam, India. It is a traditional framework for social group work practice rooted in a sense of mutual aid in the community. Adapting socio-cultural sensitivity in locating a framework for Indigenous group work practice, the article illustrates the trajectories of an undocumented traditional practice of a tribal community in the realm of social group work practice. The traditional practice of group work as a part of the village community system has undergone transformation leading to its subsequent replacement by the Self Help Group institutions. Locating cultural traditions and values in the contexts of place and historical time, the article argues for the decolonization of professional knowledge.

Communication with Health Personnel and Human Rights: A Perspective from People with Mental Disorders

AbstractMental health care has focused on participation, which, in addition to improving recovery processes, constitutes a tool to defend the human rights of people with mental disorders. For this participation, communication is a fundamental element. The objective of the present research was to analyzed the perception of the human rights and communication with healthcare personnel in care processes, from leaders of mutual aid groups or support groups in various contexts of Colombia. It is expected that the generated information can contribute to the evaluation of the quality of mental health services from a human rights and health participation perspective, in contexts similar to the one being analyzed. A qualitative approach has been used, which takes information from six leaders of support groups for mental health, in four regions of Colombia. Said information was analyzed through a thematic analysis, contrasting with the vision of the researchers and with the current theory. It is found that the subject of communication was made up of categories such as Previous ineffective treatments and Perception of a violation of dignity. Communication barriers are pointed out, such as attitudes of mental health professionals, but the influence that the health system and social and political barriers can have on the same communication is recognized. From the perception of leaders of mental health support groups, it is concluded that it is necessary to improve aspects of communication in health personnel. In addition, clinical mental health care could also be a space for the promotion of human rights.

Coping with Unknown Health Crisis via Social Media: A Content Analysis of Online Mutual Aid Group in the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The initial emergence of SARS-CoV-2 created uncertainty for humanity, driving people to seek assistance on social media. This study aims to understand the role of social media in coping with crises and to offer guidance for future uncertainties by examining the experiences of Wuhan during the early stages of the pandemic. Using quantitative content analysis, this study investigated 2207 Weibo posts tagged with "COVID-19 Mutual Aid" from individuals located in Wuhan during the early lockdown period from January 23, 2020, to March 23, 2020. At the start of pandemic, messages seeking tangible support were most common. A hurdle regression model showed that deeper self-disclosure led to more retransmission of help-seeking messages. The Chi-Square and Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that health professionals and laypeople had different self-disclosure strategies. This study provides insight into the online social support exchange during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, highlighting the importance of self-disclosure on message retransmission, and the differences in self-disclosure strategies between health professionals and laypeople in online help-seeking.

Crisis of housing cooperatives in Mexico City: A struggle for Palo Alto

This article features a conversation with Luis Márquez Cruz and Fabiola Carrera from the Palo Alto Cooperative, delving into the history and ongoing struggles of one of Mexico City's oldest housing cooperatives. Formed in the 1980s based on principles of solidarity, mutual aid, and self-management, the cooperative provided affordable housing to working-class families. However, changes to cooperative laws in 1994 halted new cooperative projects and shifted government support to private developers. Today, Palo Alto faces internal divisions as some members push for the cooperative's dissolution and sale of property amidst rising real estate prices, while others fight to preserve collective ownership. The article explores the cooperative’s international alliances, political training, and grassroots organizing efforts, highlighting the urgency of defending cooperative housing as an alternative to Mexico City's increasingly commodified and exclusionary housing market.

Latin American networking and cooperative struggles in Argentina: A conversation with the Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos (MOI)

This conversation examines the Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos (MOI) in Argentina, a grassroots organization promoting cooperative, self-managed housing for over 30 years. Based on a conversation with Néstor Jeifetz, the article traces the origins of the MOI from the 1980s building occupations in Buenos Aires, through its connection to the broader Latin American cooperative housing movement, including the creation of the Latin American Secretariat for Popular Housing and Habitat (SELVIHP). The article explores how MOI’s efforts to reclaim vacant urban properties—such as the La Fábrica cooperative housing project—address the critical need for secure, affordable housing in a context of neoliberal economic policies and external debt crises. Jeifetz discusses the political ramifications of recent far-right victories in Argentina, which threaten hard-won social rights and self-managed housing initiatives, as well as the MOI’s role in resisting these policies through a framework of collective ownership, democratic decision-making, and mutual aid. By highlighting the intersections of housing with education, health, and labor, and situating the MOI’s work within a larger history of land and building occupations across Abya-Yala, this article provides a nuanced understanding of the ongoing struggles for housing justice in the face of both local and global neoliberal forces.

Cooperativism as pedagogy: Conversation with Gustavo Machado a lecturer and researcher from Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de la República

This conversation with Gustavo Machado discusses the role of cooperativism as a pedagogical process in Uruguay. Machado emphasizes how cooperatives serve as models for housing production and transformative social learning processes, embedding collective action and mutual aid into daily life. He distinguishes between housing, habitat, and inhabitation, advocating for a broader understanding of living that transcends physical structures and integrates social, cultural, and communal dimensions. Our conversation delves into the political significance of cooperatives in the face of neoliberalism, positioning them as alternatives to market-based housing models. Machado discusses the challenges cooperatives face, such as state regulation and the need for flexibility in adapting to changing life circumstances. He also reflects on his personal experiences growing up in a cooperative during Uruguay's dictatorship, which shaped his political and professional views. The article highlights the intersection of cooperativism with broader social movements, such as gender equality and mental health, and the importance of international dialogue in expanding cooperative housing models across Latin America.

Manifestasi Nilai Kemanusiaan dalam Cerpen Kontemporer dan Relevansinya Sebagai Materi

This research examines the manifestation of humanistic values in six selected short stories from Kompas in 2021-2022 as an alternative literary teaching material. The phenomenon of declining understanding of humanitarian values among students and the importance of instilling these values through literary works serve as the background for this study. The goal is to identify and analyze the representation of humanism in contemporary Indonesian literature. The research method uses a descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis techniques. The analysis results show that the six short stories studied are rich in humanistic values such as openness, responsibility, solidarity, justice, self-sacrifice, care, and mutual assistance. The structure of a short story, including characters and setting, plays an important role in conveying those values. "The Holy Family" depicts openness, "The Three-Colored Bahar Roots" emphasizes sacrifice, "This City is a Well" explores solidarity, "About the Name of Majid Pucuk" showcases the struggle for justice, "The House that Always Smells Bad" illustrates mutual aid, and "The Fading Spark in His Eyes" highlights family care. This finding has implications for the development of more contextual literature teaching materials, encouraging a deeper understanding of humanism among students.

New constellations of care: between local and transnational care practices of young Europeans living in the UK during the (im)mobility regimes of a pandemic

ABSTRACT The restrictions to international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic have posed significant barriers to transnational family life. This paper focusses on the negotiation of familial obligations of over 300 young EU nationals aged 14–25 living in Britain. We examine how care practices were reconfigured within families, as forced immobility, absence and loss became part of transnational family life. Young people’s agency was activated to engage in desirable circulations of care, while they also engaged in acts of citizenship locally that had a care dimension. Many young people contributed to local initiatives of caring for others, such as mutual aid initiatives and local groups extending care practices to non-familial relations. We examine thus the range of care receiving and care giving practices and resources involved, including material resources, time, affection and sharing information. These practices involved family members locally or at a distance, but also non-familial relations, to shape new constellations of care.

Introduction: Mobilizing during COVID-19: social movements in times of crisis

ABSTRACT Early 2020 saw the beginning of a pandemic that triggered an unprecedented global health crisis and economic turmoil. The COVID-19 pandemic also crucially affected the dynamics of political mobilization in social movements. This introduction seeks to reflect on such effects. In particular, we ask: How did the pandemic change or hinder existing struggles? To what extent did new activist networks, issues, and forms of action emerge? Drawing on the special issue’s contributions, we highlight how the pandemic gave way to new incentives and forms of mobilization, in particular the anti-lockdown protests with covid-specific claims, and actor constellations that often brought together people with diverse ideological orientations. These mobilizations were crucially facilitated by social media, bringing together previously disconnected people and harnessing heightened emotions of fear, anger, distrust, uncertainty, and anxiety. At the same time, existing movements continued their work on longer standing issues and often effectively adapted their organizational infrastructures, repertoires of action, or goals to a new set of priorities and circumstances. As in other crises, the pandemic spurred mutual aid and solidarity activism for those most affected by the pandemic.

Barriers and facilitators to recovery among college students without access to a collegiate recovery program

Background Undergraduate students pursuing substance use recovery face multiple barriers, including widespread substance use on campus, stigma, and limited support. A small number of campuses have collegiate recovery programs to support students. Most students in recovery lack access to such programming, and little research has explored their experiences. Methods This study, framed by the recovery capital perspective, utilized thematic analysis to illuminate students’ experiences in recovery without a collegiate recovery program on a Midwestern US campus. Seventeen students participated in semi-structured interviews. We sought to understand the barriers to recovery these students faced and how students overcame them. Results Barriers exemplified limited or negative recovery capital. Students described substance use and mental health challenges, being overwhelmed with responsibilities, feeling isolated, and negative twelve-step group experiences. Students gained personal recovery capital by mobilizing personal strengths, coping, and self-care strategies. To build family/social capital, they engaged various supports (e.g. mutual aid or activist groups). Community capital was limited to campus counseling services or supportive professors. Notably, not all students chose abstinence. Conclusion This study augments the literature about how students in recovery overcome barriers without a collegiate recovery program. Universities should offer services to accommodate the range of recovery preferences and experiences.

Coffee in mutual aid for the recovery of mental health in rural settings

Los trastornos mentales tienen un impacto significativo en las personas, las familias, las comunidades y los países con consecuencias económicas evidentes, incluidos los costos directos, la pérdida de productividad y otros costos indirectos. Cada vez se reconoce más el papel de las comunidades en la gestión de su recuperación en términos de salud mental. Desde la Declaración de Caracas de 1990 se establece la responsabilidad de los Estados de promover y acompañar las acciones comunitarias. Por otro lado, el fortalecimiento de la cultura es reconocido como un factor protector de la salud mental y debe ser un componente de cualquier intervención comunitaria. A través de un método argumentativo como razón práctica y lógica inductiva, el objetivo de este estudio es analizar las estrategias de recuperación psicosocial surgidas de las comunidades. El cooperativismo, la ayuda mutua y el café se proponen como elementos orientadores de este enfoque epistemológico, este último como elemento cultural en la recuperación de la salud mental rural. La medicina, la psicología social y comunitaria y la rehabilitación de base comunitaria son movimientos no hegemónicos que pretenden fortalecer la autonomía y el empoderamiento de individuos y grupos. Esto sugiere que, con una mayor inversión en servicios comunitarios, una mayor recuperación en el entorno mismo y menos hospitalizaciones psiquiátricas, finalmente habrá un impacto positivo. Su objetivo es garantizar condiciones de vida dignas y de calidad, entre otros fines. Se concluye la importancia de orientar estas iniciativas a mejorar los problemas de implementación de las políticas públicas sociales y de Salud.

A mutual aid group for pastoral care practitioners providing services to international migrant laborers

ABSTRACT In the days following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, a mutual aid group for pastoral care practitioners who serve international labor migrants (ILMs) was conducted virtually. This article describes the formation and proceedings of this brief mutual aid group for pastoral care practitioners. While describing the content that emerged during the three sessions, some important processes and dimensions of mutual aid groups are highlighted. Additionally, the article shares details about the valuable services rendered by pastoral care practitioners supporting ILMs, alongside the complexity, prolonged presence, and invisibility of ILMs in Israeli society at large. It argues that mutual aid groups are an effective intervention to support these professionals, who know firsthand the situation of ILMs and migrant communities and continued to care for them during the recent events and resulting war.

Breaking the mold when organizing: Disability inclusion and countercultural practices

This paper explores the potential and limits of countercultural practices in reshaping arts-based approaches to disability inclusion, as increasingly advocated by alternative and community-based organizations. Adopting the framework of crip theory, the study focuses on the use of noise music in a French association of alternative organizations dedicated to mutual aid. We find that countercultural practices in that context rework disability inclusion in three ways: (1) By considering accessibility as not merely the removal of barriers, but also as a cultural transformation characterized by friction; (2) By emphasizing the importance of disharmony to challenge normalizing and assimilatory expectations related to the climate of inclusion; (3) By fostering economic eccentricity that shifts the valorization of disability from an individual to a collective level. We consider these practices as examples of an approach that overcomes the simple inclusion/exclusion dichotomy and claims the value of being in the margins. At the same time, these practices are also characterized by an essential tension between margins and center, as they often rely on the very organizational forms they want to counter. We propose the term “dis-including” to conceptualize this ambivalent, as well as contestatory and non-dichotomous character of the countercultural way of practicing inclusion. Dis-including is not a simple way out of marginalization, but a practice that questions established values, shifts the focus from the individual to the collective and requires breaking the mold when organizing. We therefore highlight the potential of dis-including to reshape mainstream notions of disability inclusion, extending beyond alternative organizations.

Latent profile of personality traits for American older adults and its transition during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 on older adults' personality development is essential for emergency management but under-researched. This study seeks to explore the personality profiles of older adults living in the United States and how these profiles transitioned during the pandemic. Longitudinal data were collected from 3,550 adults aged 60 and older who participated in both the 2016 and 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (61.18% female, mean age 65.85 in 2016). Personality traits were assessed using the Midlife Development Inventory. COVID-19-related experiences including pandemic concerns, restricted healthcare access, financial instability, work challenges, disrupted social connections, and mutual aid behaviors. Latent Profile Analysis and Transition Analysis were used for analysis. Three distinct personality profiles were identified: Well-adjusted, Moderate-adjusted, and Poor-adjusted. About 42% of respondents experienced personality changes during the pandemic. Higher levels of COVID-19 concern were linked to an increased likelihood of transitioning to Poor-adjusted from Moderate (OR=1.06, p<0.05) or Well-adjusted (OR=1.05, p<0.01). Challenges such as healthcare delays and financial hardships hindered transitions from Poor- to Moderate-adjusted (Healthcare delay: OR=0.39, p<0.05; Financial hardships: OR=0.67, p<0.05) but increased the likelihood of Moderate-adjusted individuals transitioning to Poor-adjusted (Healthcare delay: OR=1.46, p<0.05; Financial hardships: OR=1.51, p<0.05). However, Poor-adjusted individuals who provided help to others were more likely to transition to Moderate-adjusted (OR=2.71, p<0.01). Personality transitions during crisis are significant among older adults. Future interventions should focus on addressing traumatic concerns, encouraging helping behaviors, and mitigating healthcare and financial challenges to support older adults' personality development during crisis.

Layperson-Administered Naloxone Trends Reported in Emergency Medical Service Activations, 2020-2022

Layperson-administered naloxone (LAN) is a powerful but incompletely characterized intervention to prevent opioid-related overdose mortality. LAN trends are relevant to policy and strategic planning in naloxone distribution initiatives. To assess the 2-year LAN trend for persons in the United States receiving naloxone during emergency medical services (EMS) activations. This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the United States from June 2020 to June 2022 among 65 621 195 EMS activations from 911 responses, EMS standbys, or when EMS crews functioned in an ambulance intercept role or during mutual aid to another ambulance response. Activations within health care settings and interfacility or medical transports were excluded. Data are from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS), the national EMS patient care record database. From June 2020 to June 2022, NEMSIS included more than 96 million EMS activations from nearly 14 000 agencies across 54 states and territories. EMS clinician-reported LAN. The primary outcome was the trend of receiving LAN, measured by EMS clinician documentation. From June 2020 to June 2022, EMS reported 744 078 patients receiving naloxone, with 24 990 (3.4%) involving LAN. Patients were predominantly male (17 331 [69.4%]) and had a median (IQR) age of 42 (31-56) years, with the majority treated in urban homes or residences (21 692 [86.8%] urban; 13 223 [52.9%] in-home or residence). Of the total naloxone recipients, 243 985 patients (32.8%) had suspected drug overdose documentation as either the primary or secondary impression. Overall, the percentage change in naloxone administration rates decreased 6.1% over the study period (from 1140.1 [95% CI, 1135.1-1145.1] per 100 000 EMS activations to 1070.1 [95% CI, 1064.9-1075.3] per 100 000 EMS activations), while the percentage change of persons receiving LAN increased 43.5% (from 30.0 [95% CI, 29.2-30.8] per 100 000 EMS activations to 43.1 [95% CI, 42.0-44.1] per 100 000 EMS activations). In this cross-sectional study, the LAN rate increased from June 2020 to June 2022 as reported in the national EMS database. These findings help inform policies and practices aimed at mitigating the devastating impacts of the opioid epidemic and saving lives. Novel public health strategies are needed to measure the effects of this intervention nationally, evaluate approaches to expand naloxone distribution, and address naloxone usage barriers.