Self help means taking your own problems and the solutions to them into your own hands. It means becoming active within the framework of the options available to you. The people who come to a self help group suffer under the same illness, the same disability or the same psychological or social conflict situation. Also, relatives of people affected in such ways can form their own self help groups.

• are discussion groups of an easily manageable number of people (approx. 6 to 20 members),
• work as they themselves determine; that is, subject matter and manner in which the group works are determined by the members of the group,
• expect their members to participate actively and continually,
• are generally not led by professional helpers,
• meet regularly at fixed times (e.g. weekly, every 2 weeks or once a month).

In joint discussions at the regular group meetings, the individual members experience relief and support through the other members and come to see that they are not all alone with their problems. They learn to recognize their difficulties, to deal with them and overcome them. The work in the group focuses on joint exchange of experience and information.

In self help groups for specific illnesses the members inform each other, for example, of possibilities for treatment, of medications and their effects and side effects, of the details of law related to disabled persons and of the benefits from nursing care and health insurance.

The German Study Group Association Self Help Groups (DAG SHG) has described self help groups as follows

‘Self help groups are voluntary, usually loose unions of people whose activities are directed to coping jointly with illnesses, psychological or social problems by which they – either themselves or as a relative – are affected. With this work they are not trying to earn a profit. Rather, their objective is to change their personal life circumstances and, frequently, to exert an effect on their social and political environment. During their regular meetings, which often take place once a week, they stress authenticity, equal rights, joint discussions  and mutual help. Thus the group work serves as an antidote to external (social) and internal (personal, spiritual) isolation. The objectives of self help groups are focused on their members and not on outsiders; this is what distinguishes them from other types of citizen’s commitments. Self help groups are not led by professional helpers; however, some groups occasionally call in experts for specific questions.’

Sometimes a self help group becomes an action group by setting up a project which aims to make the group’s knowledge available to persons who have similar concerns but are not members. These groups offer advice and information to affected persons and/or their relatives. Such groups frequently also campaign or lobby for better conditions in the provision of health services. They direct attention to their subject by means of special events and other public relations work. Thus their objectives go beyond those of their work within the group.

Some action groups and other initiatives go beyond the local level to form associations at the state or federal level so as to better represent their interests as a lobby. Such groups are called self help organisations.

The boundaries between the various forms of organisations are often blurred so that not every group can be clearly classified as a particular type of group.

Self help groups can exist quite independently of a specific project or higher ranking organisation, but they can also exist in the vicinity, probably organisational, of a self help project or organisation.

Regional groups are unions of the members of the federal or state organisations in a given region.

However, this brochure is just concerned with the work in self help groups as narrowly understood (i.e. without projects, lobbying, etc.).