Suchergebnisse

Die Entwicklung von Selbsthilfegruppen gestaltet sich höchst unterschiedlich: Manche Gruppen schließen sich gegenüber der Umwelt ab, offene Selbsthilfegruppen können in Selbsthilfe-Aktionsgruppen oder Selbsthilfeorganisationen übergehen, um ihre Interessen gegenüber dem professionellen Versorgungssystem durchzusetzen; oft übernehmen sie auch selbst bestimmte Dienstleistungsaufgaben wie z. B. Beratungsdienste. Anhand der Ergebnisse einer empirischen Longitudinalstudie über zwei Selbsthilfegruppen (Elternkreis Drogenabhängiger Hamburg; Graue Panther Hamburg) versucht der vorliegende Beitrag die Vielfalt von Erscheinungsformen und Veränderungsprozessen von Selbsthilfegruppen zu erfassen. Vergleichend wurden politische und administrative Instanzen in die Untersuchung einbezogen, um etwas über den Zusammenhang zwischen sozialstaatlichem System und Selbsthilfegruppen zu erfahren. (ICE)

Institutionalized rights for the participatioii of consumers in the decision-making processes or provision of health and social services do not exist in West Germany. However, consumers have begun to voice their concerns about this state of affairs and have undertaken more involvement in the planning and implementation of their own forms of health care, while concurrently pressuring the health care and social services systems to become more responsive to their needs. We note two reasons for the existence of such opposition to such participation. We argue that self-help associations (several types of which are described herein) are at present the only relevant form of consumer participation in West Germany, by focusing our attention on the tasks and accomplishments of health relevant to self-help associations. These associations offer effective ways of dealing with the rigidity and heaviness of large bureaucratic organizations such as political parties and unions. We conclude by identifying newer pro-active roles and responsibilities of the patient as consumer both within and external to the official health care system.

This article reports on four and a half years of participant observation in two self-help associations, a Gray Panthers group and a Parents Circle of Young Drug Abusers. As the first step of our analysis, we developed a classification system for the activities of these groups (self-maintenance, mutual aid, socializing, voluntary work, and lobbying). This helped us to identify and characterize five developmental stages (solidarization, orienta tion, stabilization, differentiation, and institutionalization of one or more activity areas). We describe the development of the two groups and their transformation over time, suggest some hypotheses for further research, and discuss some implications of the results.