SELF-HELP
GROUPS AND RESOURCES
-
a Nurturing Potential report
Self-help
is not an inevitable alternative to professional help, but it is certainly an
option to be considered, if not exercised, before professional help is sought.
It was always available and, indeed, adopted in many cases and for a
multiplicity of reasons. But never
was it as accessible and effective as it is today.
The
internet is undoubtedly the greatest source of self-help information there has
ever been. And organisations and
groups exist everywhere that offer help and encouragement to those who are
anxious to help themselves. The
help ranges from simple emotional support (just being there!), through advice,
direction, information, friendship, individual advocacy, and tools for
diagnosis, exploration and recovery.
Despite
the amount of help available for people to help themselves nowadays, it is
sometimes necessary – or preferable – to seek help from a professional,
someone who can view the situation impartially.
So, even when it’s more rewarding to treat one’s own complaint by
virtue of increased self-esteem, greater independence, or simply less expense,
to avoid a professional out of stubbornness is a poor strategy.
Having
provided that caveat, let us now consider the development, growth and
increasingly utilised groups for people who have either been diagnosed with
illness, physical or mental, or have been through a traumatic period of
suffering and treatment and now
regard themselves as survivors (or, as Abigail Freeman prefers to call herself
in The Chrysalid Years: veterans), and are working together both for
support and in order to produce change in the health system and in society.
It
must be recognised that veterans are capable of being the most powerful
advocates for reform, both on their own behalf and in defence of others.
The self-help group movement, after all, grew out of the idea that
individuals who have experienced similar crises can provide effective support to
each other.
Support
groups offer an opportunity to be productive, to work together with others to
find solutions to a variety of obstacles. People
who have experienced problems based on medication (or over-medication), social
security benefits (or the absence thereof), housing, employment, neglect,
families and friends, and others, are in a unique position to help others in a
similar situation.
The
first mental health self-help groups, for example, were started by people who
had experienced what they regarded as an oppressive and abusive mental health
system. It was inevitable that they
would want to join with others to fight the type of social discrimination faced
by those with histories of psychiatric disorders.
To
summarise the benefits of self-help groups:
