Self help groups in a city of Tuscany: reconstruction of the second generation model of work for professionals and services

Giving voice—And the numbers, too: Mixed methods research in community psychology.

“…However, we also wonder whether the quantitatively oriented history of U.S.-based community psychology may be a bit of barrier. As a point of contrast, since the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice was founded in 2010, over half (53%) of its peer-reviewed articles were qualitative in nature (as of 2013; see Arcidiacono, Procentese, & di Napoli, 2012;Makkawi, 2012;Petrini, Vannucchi, Miraglia Raineri, & Meringol, 2012;Saïas & Delawarde, 2013;Schmidt, 2012). Increasing the field's exposure to qualitative works in particular is critical for development of methodologically pluralistic designs.…”

Continuum between Relational and Therapeutic Models of Self‐help in Mental Health: A Qualitative Approach

“…This process is still ongoing, generating a mixed model of self-help in the Tuscan mental health system wherein groups can access different kinds of support from professional services, such as sanitary meeting spaces, external supervision of facilitators, recruitment of new members, and monitoring of attendance. Naturalistic observations of these realities (Petrini, Vannucchi, Miraglia Raineri, & Meringolo, 2012) encouraged us to deepen our analysis regarding the relationship between professional mental health services and self-help groups. In accordance with the view of Shepherd et al (1999), we resisted a categorical threshold beyond which the professional support results in a professionalled group rather than one in the form of self-help.…”