Self‐Help Groups in the Welfare State: Treatment Program or Voluntary Action?

Abstract

This article identifies two different perspectives used when

Motives for becoming and remaining member of patient associations: a study of 1,810 Swedish individuals with cancer associations

“…board members and members who give altruistic and philanthropic motives, it may be justifiable to relate the results-in addition to the receiver/user perspective-to the research on volunteer activities and to the relation between givers and receivers (see [9,12] for research on givers/providers and receivers/beneficiaries). The individual's needs in the disease and illness process and the focus may change over time; a member may change his or her motive when he or she becomes a board member and thereby becomes 'voice oriented' (see theme 2:2, Table 4) (see [9,19,26] for view of the concept of voice).…”

“…There is also discussion about how members' experience of a common problem should be studied-from a professional perspective or from the perspective of the volunteer sector, i.e. the individual's benefit of participation [9,11,12]. Scandinavian countries have by tradition mainly applied a voluntary action perspective [12], which is described as the concept of 'service' and the metaphor 'voices'.…”

“…the individual's benefit of participation [9,11,12]. Scandinavian countries have by tradition mainly applied a voluntary action perspective [12], which is described as the concept of 'service' and the metaphor 'voices'. 'Service' indicates that the organisations provide a service [28,29].…”

Patients’ involvement in improving cancer care: experiences in three years of collaboration between members of patient associations and health care professionals

“…The forms were sent out after 1 and 3 years of collaboration. The term 'experience' was used since we were interested in the participants' views on collaboration rather than specific elements of the project [27]. At 1 year, all 13 PACP participants responded to the question and at 3 years 10/13 responded, whereas three members returned an unanswered form.…”

Self-help and self-help groups for people with long-lasting health problems or mental health difficulties in a Nordic context: A review

“…Self-help is viewed by some researchers as an alternative strategy for marginalised groups to gain a voice in the public arena [12,13] and by others as a support system to complement public healthcare measures, through mutual support, sharing experiences and information, or social contact in a group setting [13][14][15][16][17][18]. In this sense, self-help can be seen as representing an experience-based perspective on health problems, as it is based on mutual experiences.…”