Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book grew out of a series of three meetings between English and German researchers who share a common interest in self help in health care and social welfare. The meetings were sponsored by the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society and took place at intervals during 1986. The book outlines the institutional context of self help. It describes the evolution of self help and considers the responses this has evoked in government and in established health and social welfare organizations. The book also looks at the role of the European Community and of the World Health Organization in promoting self help in health. It explains that a policy on self help has proved equally elusive on an international level.