Rehabilitation Initiatives by Disability Self-help Groups: A Comparative Study

As part of its programme of activities for the triennium 1996-98, the ISSA proposed that a comparative country study be conducted on the social relevance of self-help groups and their integration into the rehabilitation process.A pilot study was conducted to assess the situation in five European countries at comparable stages of social development. Increasingly, since the Second World War, people with a chronic illness or a disability in these countries have joined together in self-help groups and organizations in order to overcome their condition together and work for better integration into society. The situation at present is that the self-help movement is no longer seen as an alternative to the regular social security system, as it used to be: instead, both the self-help groups and organizations and the institutions and facilities responsible for rehabilitation are seeking an increase in cooperation.