ABSTRACT
To understand the development of self help groups one has to be familiar with at least some essential characteristics of the national health and welfare systems. In the case of West Germany these systems are extraordinarily complex and difficult to understand even for most German professionals. The health system in West Germany is financially based mainly on statutory health insurance. It affords medical care for the insured and his family, and under certain conditions it provides the patient's income. In West Germany ambulatory medical care is provided by a rapidly increasing number of private doctors who practise their profession 'freely'. Although social work underwent a dramatic process of professionalization during the 60s and 70s, volunteers are still to be found under the roof of all the big welfare organizations in West Germany. An additional, comparatively new problem was the so-called financial crisis.
