Being a ‘Self-Help Supporter’: Recognising the roles that community practitioners can adopt in supporting self-help groups

Recent policies on self-care and personalisation have a strong focus on the value of peers as a means through which understanding and knowledge can be conveyed. This opens up new opportunities for community practitioners to work with groups run for and by peers who share the same health or social situation. Selected findings are presented from a three year Big Lottery funded project ‘ESTEEM’ (2010-13) conducted in two locations in England, focussing on the ways in which community practitioners can best support the ethos and practice of peer led self-help groups in the community. The study involved a sample of 21 SHGs and 26 practitioners who contributed to semi-structured interviews, group interviews and workshops which shaped online national resources and subsequent training programmes. The findings explore the types of relationships and core activities that practitioners have with SHGs. suggesting a nuanced picture of practitioner support to groups in three main areas of activity: organisational development; nurturing members and processes and enhancing and sharing expertise. Building on the findings the discussion considers how practitioners can best support SHGs, whilst crucially respecting the autonomy and integrity of the groups. Five roles that practitioners as a ‘self-help supporter’ can adopt are identified.