Self-Help/Mutual Aid Organizations: The View from Mars

Abstract

The disparity between the importance of addiction-related self-help organizations and the amount of attention they receive is discussed. Greater resources should be directed toward researching the effects of self-help/mutual aid organizations on members, professional human services, and the general public

Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., is a research psychologist at the Center for Health Care Evaluation and Program Evaluation and Resource Center, Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Health Care System. He is also a Consulting Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Humphreys' research focuses on mutual help organizations for substance users and mental illness, and on VA and non-VA sub- stance user treatment systems. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Self-Help and Self-Care, which will begin publication in 1998.

Key Words:

• Self-help groups
• Mutual aid
• Research funding
• Addiction