Understanding the Self-Help Organization
Frameworks and Findings
Edited by:
- Thomas J. Powell - University of Oxford, UK
August 1994 | 360 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"This book offers useful insights into the current state of research and conceptual models in the field of self-help. There are few books available with this specific focus. The reader may be surprised at the diversity of self-help groups and how the paradigms for self-help differ within the field. The book is suitable for academic libraries and self-help professionals."
--Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Journal
"Dr. Powell's book illuminates important theoretical, methodological, and substantive issues, thereby enriching and informing self-help research at a critical time in its development and significance."
--Keith Humphreys, Ph.D.,
Center for Health Care Evaluation,
Department of Veterans Affairs,
Stanford University School of Medicine
"This book marks a major advance in methodological and conceptual sophistication in self-help group research, which will ultimately benefit society as well as researchers."
--Leon H. Levy, Ph.D.,
Professor and Chair,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
While the term "self-help" is sometimes used to refer to a low-cost, solitary activity, more often it refers to an organized social activity that in the United States alone involves 7.5 million people. Alcoholics Anonymous by itself enrolls huge numbers of people and has an enormous impact on the professional treatment system for alcoholics. In the mental health field, a vigorous consumer and family movement--including groups such as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association--involves hundreds of thousands of members and has caught the attention of the professional system. Understanding the Self-Help Organization provides detailed, comprehensive coverage of this phenomenon. This comprehensive volume focuses attention on three critical areas: public policy and self-help, participation--particularly by minorities--in self-help, and explanatory frameworks. Powell concludes this extraordinary volume with six chapters of important findings and case studies within self-help activities.
Timely and provocative, Understanding the Self-Help Organization is essential reading for researchers, professionals, scholars, and students in the fields of counseling psychology, organization studies, psychology, and social work.
Thomas J Powell
Preface
PART ONE: POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND FINDINGS
Thomas J Powell
Self-Help Research and Policy Issues
Thomas J Powell
Agency Involvement with Self-Help Programs and Quality of Mental Health Services for Older Adults
PART TWO: MAJORITY AND MINORITY PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORKS AND FINDINGS
Morton A Lieberman and Lonnie R Snowden
Problems in Assessing Prevalence and Membership Characteristics of Self-Help Group Participants
Lonnie R Snowden and Morton A Lieberman
African-American Participation in Self-Help Groups
Keith Humphreys and Michael D Woods
Researching Mutual Help Group Participation in a Segregated Society
Douglas A Luke, Linda Roberts and Julian Rappaport
Individual, Group Context, and Individual-Group Fit Predictors of Self-Help Group Attendance
PART THREE: EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORKS
Julian Rappaport
Narrative Studies, Personal Studies, and Identity Transformation in the Mutual Help Context
Kenneth I Maton
Moving Beyond the Individual Level of Analysis in Mutual-Help Group Research
Caroline L Kaufmann
Consumer Roles in Self-Help Group Research
Mellen Kennedy, Keith Humphreys and Thomasina Borkman
The Naturalistic Paradigm as an Approach to Research with Mutual Help Groups
PART FOUR: FINDINGS
Gregory Meissen and Mary Warren
The Self-Help Clearinghouse
Kermit B Nash and Kathryn D Kramer
Self-Help for Sickle Cell Disease in African American Communities
Marsha A Schubert and Thomasina Borkman
Identifying the Experiential Knowledge Developed within a Self-Help Group
Christine L Saulnier
Twelve Steps for Everyone? Lesbians in Al-Anon
J B Kingree and R Barry Ruback
Understanding Self-Help Groups
Linda Farris Kurtz
Self-Help Groups for Families with Mental Illness or Alcoholism