Self-help Process Research Articles

Managed care: recovery enhancer or inhibitor?

psychiatric rehabilitation (2) not only would represent the best utilization management strategy for the partnership but also would produce outcomes that would make consumers its best spokespersons. The psychiatric rehabilitation curriculum is built on a foundation of empowerment. As consumers begin to take control of their lives, the need for alternatives or adjuncts to traditional treatment, such as self-help groups and consumer-operated drop-in centers, increases. As consumers become involved in these activities, they form social networks that address the negative effects of isolation and decrease

SOS and the Retelling of Suicide

Participants in a self-help group for suicide ‘survivors’– that is, people who have lost loved ones to suicide death – seek to recover and produce narratives of their experience. Based on a micro-study drawn from the author’s personal journals and an analysis of the national organization’s printed materials, this article explores how a particular view of the ‘self’ functions in a group where stories of tragedy are told. An interpretive analysis of the self-help process, as experienced in an SOS (Survivors of Suicide) group, suggests that the group’s methods of moving toward mutual understanding and recovery rely on a construction of the ‘self’ having experienced this particular loss. Descriptions of the group’s structure and of social interactions are drawn from observations made by the author who was a participant in the group.

Mutual Assistance Groups in a Shelter for Persons with AIDS

The devastating impact of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic leaves a growing number of persons in need of physical, psychological and social support. This paper describes a mutual assistance group in a shelter for homeless persons with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The self-help process empowers persons living with AIDS to cope with the disease, to help others with related experiences, and to maximize control over their lives by focusing on the helping process of the group. The group provides informal support fostering mastery and autonomy in addressing life's struggles.

The role of self-help groups in helping patients and families cope with cancer.

Self-help processes of change are different and distinct from those of professional service and evolve empirically out of the patients' own experience. There is increasing evidence that self-help groups are beneficial, and their use should be encouraged. It is not a question of which system of change-self help or professional-is better. Both methods appear to have a meaningful role in helping individuals with psychosocial problems, including patients with cancer.

State-Sanctioned Self-Help and Self-Help Homebuilders in South Africa

Formal, state-sanctioned self-help housing for blacks in whitedesignated areas of South Africa is discussed. Based on two case studies, the actual and potential impacts of this form of self-help housing on the participants are examined. It is shown that national settlement policies and local interventions have to some degree constrained the range of user opportunities potentially opened up through the self-help process, and it is argued that the case studies presage the residential future of increasing numbers of South African black people.

Special issues in the grief of parents of murdered children

Abstract This paper is a report of one year's participant observation in a heal chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a self-help group. The already difficult grief after the death of a child is complicated after murder by four special issues, (a.) Anger is focused on the person who willfully caused the death and there is a drive for revenge. (b) The grief cannot be resolved until the legal processes have been completed and within the court system the parent are caught up in a procedural labyrinth in which they have no legal standing, (c) Parents are fearful about the safety of themselves and other members of their family, (d) Parent of a murdered child is a taboo social role. The self-help process of Parents of Murdered Children as it differs from other self-help for for bereaved parents is discussed.

Personal Constructs of Students with Eating Disorders: Implications for Counselling

Abstract Members of two self-help groupsfor university andpolytechnic students with eating disorders were asked to generale personal constructs. The analysis of the subsequent grids showed that the students were concerned with similar emotional issues. Il also produceda significant difference between ratings of'self and ‘ideal self, butfailed to produce evidence of' tight' construing. Discussion ofthe grids made a positive contribution to the self-help process.

The media and self-help: a preventive community intervention

This paper describes a preventive, media-based intervention implemented during a 9-month period in a major metropolitan area. The intervention consisted of placing actual self-help groups on a 50,000 watt radio station. During these weekly programs, the process of self-help was stressed; that is, people with similar problems offering one another support, encouragement, and solutions based on experience, not just theoretical knowledge. During the second part of the program, members of the audience were invited to call in and share their concerns with the self-help members. When community oriented psychologists collaborate with the media and self-help groups, there are unique organizational, interpersonal, and political issues that need to be carefully considered. These are discussed.

The process of self-help: the community's role.

A series of concepts and definitions of community and self-help are presented for use in the development of models for intervention in which clarity in the community's role will reinforce self-help ventures.

Self-help groups for the bereaved: Theory, theology, and practice

Self-help groups for the bereaved are a relatively unexplored area of wholistic ministry. The article grows out of the author's experience as an advisor to a local chapter of The Compassionate Friends, a group of parents whose children have died. The article explores the self-help concept, describes the experience of losing a child and the way the self-help process functions in that dynamic, and enumerates some roles the author has been able to fill as an aid to a local chapter. Within that framework, the article shows the affinities between self-help and ministry.

Self-Help within a Medical Institution: Its Potentials and Limits

The current health self-help movement has its roots in the social movements of the 1960's. Frustrated with the practices and priorities of established medicine, many groups organized to meet their health needs outside the medical care system. Now self-help is becoming more attractive to health care providers. Hospitals, physicians and funding agencies are putting new emphasis on teaching self-help skills to a variety of patients.This report describes one such program established for asthmatic children and their parents in a medical center in New York City. By analyzing the different perspectives of parents, children, educators, physicians, hospital administrators and the funding agency, it shows how self-help programs within a hospital setting are shaped by an interaction of forces. The potential and limits of self-help as an instrument for social and institutional change are described. The article concludes with recommendations on how health workers can contribute to the self-help process.

Talking Out of Alcoholism: The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous

"Talking Out of Alcoholism: The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous" Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 41(9), pp. 1014–1015

David Robinson, Talking out of Alcoholism: The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous, Croom Helm, London, 1979. 152 pp. £7.95 - Joyce O'Connor, The Young Drinkers, Tavistock Publications, London, 1978. 321 pp. £14.25.

David Robinson, Talking out of Alcoholism: The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous, Croom Helm, London, 1979. 152 pp. £7.95 - Joyce O'Connor, The Young Drinkers, Tavistock Publications, London, 1978. 321 pp. £14.25.

Book review£7.95 in UK only Talking Out of Alcoholism: The Self-help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous, David Robinson, Croom Helm, New York (1979), p. 152

Book review£7.95 in UK only Talking Out of Alcoholism: The Self-help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous, David Robinson, Croom Helm, New York (1979), p. 152

Talking out of alcoholism: The self-help process of alcoholics anonymous

Talking out of alcoholism: The self-help process of alcoholics anonymous

The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous

The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous

Principles of Interviewing and Patient Counseling

Motivating the poor to positive participation in the self-help process involves effective interviewing and counseling. The author urges nutritionists and others in medical settings, where the “team approach” is used, to apply the tried-and-true techniques described.