[Counseling concepts and services of health-associated self-help initiatives]

Self-help groups formed increased since the beginning of the eighties; in the field of health especially chronically ill persons met to cope with their daily illness-related problems. As these self-help-initiatives developed into suppliers of services this study should provide information about the special quality of counselling concepts and other services. A telephone interview with 224 self-help initiatives revealed a high proportion of counselling activity (75%). Based on the concept of Grounded Theory a qualitative analysis shows that the perspectives "service provision" and "social support" examined separately so far can only be understood in their combination. Especially community narratives proved to be connecting structural elements on which counselling concepts are based. These community narratives were reconstructed from narrative patterns of stories, mottos, rituals and others. Further essential structural elements are the principle of mutuality, the collective search for a panacea, processes of empowerment and the reference to everday life and environment. The principle of self-help and empowerment is highly valued by the patients. To incorporate this principle in the health care system a closer cooperation of these two systems should be strived for. Therefore it is necessairy to develop a theory of self-help specific counselling in combination with results from salutogenesis research.