[Co-operation between self-help groups and rehabilitation facilities within the framework of the German Pension...

Rehabilitation facilities are generally successful in their treatment goals, but cannot cover all aspects of coping with illness that everyday life after inpatient rehabilitation entails. The expertise of other patients and their relatives in the form of self-help groups (SHG) and peer counselling can help to stabilize the success of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation clinics occupy a strategically important position in the treatment pathway of patients when it comes to information about and referral to SHGs. This insight has been taken into account in recent years by numerous normative commitments of rehabilitation representatives to cooperate with organised self-help. The aim of the present study was to examine the normative statements of the German Pension Insurance (DRV) and the Federal Rehabilitation Association (BAR) on cooperation between self-help groups and the rehabilitation system and compare them with the relevant empirical data available.

The balance of normative statements was based on an analysis of publicly available documents: DRV rehabilitation reports, practical aids, instructions and information on quality management systems of rehabilitation clinics as well as scientific literature. Secondary analytical answers to the empirical question of how many rehabilitants were referred to SHGs were provided by the DRV rehab reports and our own specific evaluations of DRV data from 2010 to 2022 provided to us.

The increasingly systematic intentions to cooperate with self-help groups and organisations were evident in all the documents analysed. Empirical results: Only a few of the annual rehab reports contained results from rehabilitant surveys. In a study published in 2010, 7-18% of former rehabilitants reported having received the "suggestion of an SHG". Suggestions for an SHG remained constant between 2010 and 2021 at a total of 9-10% in the somatic inpatient areas, but at 75% in the addiction area. Special evaluations of the service provision reported by clinics showed an increase in "referral to an SHG" from 4% to 8% of all rehabilitants between 2010 and 2015.

With the exception of addiction clinics, the empirical reality of cooperation between the rehabilitation and self-help systems falls well short of the programmatic and normative statements. A current action research project with the DRV aims to achieve improvements.