Self-Help/Mutual Aid in Germany—A 30 Year Perspective of a Participant Observer

Matzat, Jürgen

doi:10.2190/sh.5.3.e

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…diagnosis or type of service-user) to represent a given category to fulfil their quotas of service-user participation instead of inviting a member from a mature MAG with collectivised knowledge of the condition to give their views (Munn-Giddings 2003). The only exception we know of is Germany, which has a system to ensure that experientially knowledgeable people are selected to represent their disease/condition categories by ensuring that health providers work first and foremost with established MAGs that have collectivised experiential knowledge of their members (Matzat 2010).…”

Section: Discussion: What Can We Learn From Mags? Implications For Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mutual support as voluntary action has always been part of human society in one form or another, including with Peter Kropotkin's (1914) empirical observations that mutual aid is as prevalent in the animal world as 'survival of the fittest' -a feature he theorised and applied to human societies. The form that mutual aid takes is linked to the economic, social, and political conditions in which it appears (Gidron and Chesler 1994;Dill and Coury 2008;Matzat 2010;Oka 2013).…”

Section: Characteristics and Variations In Practices Of Magsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reciprocal Relationships and Well-Being

Törrönen¹,

Munn‐Giddings

Tarkiainen³

2017

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This book provides a robust empirical and theoretical analysis of reciprocity and its implications for social work and social policy practices by discussing how ideas of reciprocity can be understood and applied to welfare policy and social care practices as well as how the act of reciprocity supports the well-being of citizens. Contributions from Finland, Austria, the UK, the USA and Canada illuminate the ways in which sociopolitical contexts influence the power relations between citizens, practitioners and the state, and the potential (or otherwise) for reciprocity to flourish. This will be essential reading for social care practitioners, researchers and educationalists as well as postgraduate students in social work and related social care and community-oriented professions and social policymakers. Maritta Törrönen is Professor of Social Work at University of Helsinki. Her main research interests concern theory of reciprocity, global welfare society, communities, power relationships, everyday life and well-being, which have points of reference with social work and social policy, childhood, child protection, family research and ethnic studies. Her recent research is linked to international social work and proactive social work. She is leading the project 'Reciprocal Encounters-Young People Leaving Care', funded by the European Union during 2016-2018.

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Section: Discussion: What Can We Learn From Mags? Implications For Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Characteristics and Variations In Practices Of Magsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal Relationships and Well-Being

Törrönen¹,

Munn‐Giddings

Tarkiainen³

2017

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“…We should not ignore that the voluntary engagement of SHG members can be rather limited due to their health conditions or even may stop suddenly because of decompensation or acute episodes of their illness [57]. Furthermore, healthcare organizations or legal committees require more and different skills beyond the "mere patient role".…”

Section: Shortcomings Of the Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient-Centered Medicine and Self-Help Groups in Germany: Self-Help Friendliness as an Approach for Patient Involvement in Healthcare Institutions

Trojan

Kofahl

Nickel

2017

Patient Centered Medicine

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Collaboration between laypersons and professionals is closely linked to the concept of patient centeredness. Patient centeredness means meeting the needs of individual patients as well as reacting to patients' demands on the collective level. The support of self-help groups and their integration into healthcare institutions represent a major policy approach to fulfilling this requirement. Here, we first deal with the concept of patient centeredness in general, and the understanding of concept and use in Germany. We also provide a short definition of self-help friendliness (SHF) and discuss the success achieved in implementing it in Germany so far. We then clarify the closely related concepts of patient centeredness, patient participation and patient involvement SHF is seen as a strategy for increasing both patient centeredness and patient participation in healthcare services. We subsequently describe the involvement of self-help groups and patient associations in a series of empirical studies and practice-oriented projects carried out between 2004 and 2013. The last section contains a general discussion of the SHF approach as a means of systematically increasing sustainable patient centeredness and patient participation in healthcare services. Finally, we address the chances for future development in Germany and the transferability of SHF to other countries.

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“…Instead, strengthening the position of users within the highly formalized and bureaucratic system (which was criticized by some as inhumane) of the by then mature welfare state became the key aim for patient organizations and self‐help groups (Deppe 1987; Ruckstuhl 2011). The ambition of the latter was nothing less than empowering users while democratizing the healthcare system, as described by a participant and witness of the German self‐help movement: “To support each other mutually, to cope with crisis and illness, to become competent patients, to become more ‘empowered’ in their interaction with professionals, and to influence health and social policy as well as professionals and their institutions” (Matzat 2010a, 283). User organizations that resembled popular movements shaped their own profile as self‐declared change agents by pursuing a twofold mission: the emancipation of the patient and the civilization of the healthcare system.…”

Section: ‐ User Organizations: From Voluntary Care Givers To Empomentioning

confidence: 99%

Change agents and service providers? User organizations in the German healthcare system

Ewert¹

2015

European Policy Analysis

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In emerging healthcare markets, user organizations, conceived as patient organizations, self‐help groups, and customer services, now face the challenge of acting as both change agents and service providers. On the one hand, they are expected to push for user‐oriented healthcare reforms; on the other hand, they are urged to facilitate users’ healthcare consumption by supporting them in their decisions regarding healthcare providers and treatments, relationships to physicians, and concerning the promotion of health literacy. This plurality of tasks, which must be carried out against a backdrop of scant resources, means that many user organizations are in danger of losing their corrective civil society‐based influence vis‐à‐vis the power of healthcare professionals and providers. User organizations, having criticized the system in the past, may thus become ‘ordinary’ service agencies operating at arm's length from established healthcare providers and administrators. Given these developments, this contribution scrutinizes how different types of user organizations are responding to systemic change and the resulting conflicts. Drawing on an empirical study of the German healthcare system, two research interests are pursued. First, how do user organizations reshape their profiles in a more marketized healthcare system? Second, what strategies can a user organization adopt to minimize the risk of becoming a ‘jack‐of‐all‐trades’?

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Self-Help/Mutual Aid in Germany—A 30 Year Perspective of a Participant Observer

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

Reciprocal Relationships and Well-Being

Reciprocal Relationships and Well-Being

Patient-Centered Medicine and Self-Help Groups in Germany: Self-Help Friendliness as an Approach for Patient Involvement in Healthcare Institutions

Change agents and service providers? User organizations in the German healthcare system

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