The Sharing of Roles between a Social Worker and Members of a Self-help Group for Mental Ex-patients in Australia

Abstract

This a qualitative study on the collaboration of social workers and the members of GROW in South Australia. By means of participant observation in two self-help groups of GROW, the writer discovered that professionally trained social workers collaborated well with members in the self-help groups as they had similar backgrounds and experiences. Also, the social workers' roles in running these two groups were shared by group members who took up roles as initiators, facilitators, leaders, evaluators, organizers and problem solvers within these self-help groups. The strengths and weaknesses of this model for the rehabilitation of mental ex-patients and its implications on social work interventions are also described.