Understanding the self-help organization
Subtitle: frameworks and findings
By: edited by Thomas J. Powell.
Contributors: Powell, Thomas J.
Publisher: Sage Publications
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Thousand Oaks, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 345
Subjects: Self-help groups.
Description: While the term "self-help" is sometimes used to refer to a low-cost, solitary activity, more often it refers to an organized social activity that in the United States alone involves 7.5 million people. Alcoholics Anonymous by itself enrolls huge numbers of people and has an enormous impact on the professional treatment system for alcoholics.

In the mental health field, a vigorous consumer and family movement - including groups such as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association - involves hundreds of thousands of members and has caught the attention of the professional system. Understanding the Self-Help Organization provides detailed, comprehensive coverage of this phenomenon. This comprehensive volume focuses attention on three critical areas: public policy and self-help, participation - particularly by minorities - in self-help, and explanatory frameworks.

Powell concludes this extraordinary volume with six chapters of case studies and important findings within self-help activities. Timely and provocative, Understanding the Self-Help Organization is essential reading for researchers, professionals, scholars, and students in the fields of counseling psychology, organization studies, psychology, and social work.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.