Publications listing

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Self Help Groups Nottingham and District 2008
published by Self Help Nottingham, 27th edition price £5.50

Self help support groups in Nottingham cover a wide range of issues including bereavement, long term conditions, disability, parenting/caring and relationships. Self Help Nottingham’s 27th edition of the Directory lists details of over 150 self help support groups and 60 useful local organisations. It is updated annually and is the most complete listing of self help support groups in the area.

Self Help Groups Getting Started, Keeping Going
2nd edition published in 1998 by Judy Wilson and Jan Myers, special price £4.00

This book covers everything you need to know about starting and running a self help group.

The book is for:

• people who want to start a group for people with the same medical condition or life situation who are looking for mutual support
  
• groups which are growing and changing or facing challenges
  
• national organisations who work with self help support groups
  
• association and individuals who advise on how to organise groups
• professionals who are encouraging self help support groups amongst their patients and clients
• advice services and helplines who want to recommend a book on self help support groups
  

The book discusses why people want to belong to a self help support group, how groups work, relationships with professionals and the public, difficulties and problems and even how to end a group when its work is done. It is based on the experience of hundreds of self help support groups. It is not just a book about self help support groups it is a book by them.

It is the ideal manual for anyone who belongs to a self help support group. It is also ideal for you if you work with groups, to recommend to them.

A Self Help Group for your Patient
published in 2004 by Self Help Nottingham, price £2.50

Improved patient and public representation and support is at the heart of the National Health Service’s drive to build a modern service around the needs of the individual patient. Self help support groups and mutual aid networks are growing in number and are likely to become increasingly more significant in the rapidly changing health agenda, which emphasises self care and actively values the experience of users and carers.

This informative booklet provides information about self help support groups for those working in GP Practices.

How to Listen More Effectively - A simple guide to some basic listening skills.
published in 1999 by Self Help Nottingham, price £2.50

You seem to be hearing what I say, but are you really listening to me?

People join or start self help support groups for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is to meet and talk to people who are experiencing or have experienced a similar problem or issue. This guide covers a range of different experiences, whether it is bereavement, caring for a child with a rare disease or a partner with a long term illness, unemployment, anxiety or feeling isolated by physical disability and/or mental health problems. Much of the benefit comes from the process of being listened to and of listening.

The impetus to produce a new resource for listening skills comes from the expressed needs of members of self help support groups and others seeking information and an introduction to the values of listening as part of the helping process. Self Help Nottingham's listening skills training courses and our previous publication on listening skills have proved time and again that group members feel that they need to improve their skills in listening. In this way their effectiveness with others whether in face-to-face contact, group situations or on the telephone, will be increased.

While this is not a definitive 'how to' book, it is about learning to communicate more effectively with others, to give insights and to provide some examples of techniques and skills developments. As such it can be a valuable tool for anyone wishing to apply their active listening skills in a variety of situations.

Good Links Guidelines on how self help groups can work with professionals
by Judy Wilson, special price £3.50

Many self help support groups want to develop good links with professionals in the health and social services. Groups can choose and some groups prefer total independence. Groups who choose to work with professionals usually find that good contacts help their work. Quite how they work together and how close a link they have will depend on the group and on the professional concerned.

Increasingly, professionals are willing to work in co-operation, although the relationship is not always easy. These guidelines suggest why, with whom and how groups might develop their contacts and their relationships. They identify common obstacles in the way and suggest the need to keep reviewing and perhaps changing the relationship.

Quotations from self help support group members illustrate the practical advice offered. Suggestions of actions that groups could take are included at the end of each section.

This book was written using the results of a two year research project undertaken in the area covered by the Trent Regional Health Authority during 1992-3.

Sharing Experience, Living and Learning, published in 2000 by Community Matters
by K. T. Elsdon with John Reynolds and Susan Stewart
special price £4.50

Self help support groups are the fastest growing segment of the whole voluntary and community sector. There have been helpful guides to practice and some limited accounts, however, this is the first systematic study of a large and fully represented sample in an area with over 1% of the UK population. It is based on hundreds of individual and group interviews, actual observations and questionnaires. Eight intensive case studies of sample groups are reported in the text. Analysis is both qualitative and quantitative and its interpretation throws important new light on the whole field, memberships, objectives, benefits and includes local and national intermediary and umbrella bodies. All the material is presented in clear and simple language and it is accessible to interested lay readers no less than professionals.

This is the latest volume from the Nottingham University Voluntary Organisations Research Project, by the author of Voluntary Organisations: Citizenship, Learning and Change. In addition to the 120 groups in this sample the research was able to draw on the team's pioneering work since 1999 with the whole range of voluntary and community groups and on their international links and consultancies.

Report Framing a Future for Self Help, practice informing research informing practice, Conference
published in 2000 by Self Help Nottingham, price £1.00 for postage and packing only

This conference brought together a broad range of people and organisations involved in self help from across the UK, Japan, Israel and America to explore new developments in research and practice. The report has summaries of the presentations and workshops.

How to Work with Self Help Groups
by Judy Wilson, published by Arena, price £8.00

Coping with loss, ill health and change are part of everyday life. The best support and information often comes from those who have already gone through a similar experience. Professional care is much appreciated, but it is part of the help needed self help support groups are another way of getting and giving help. They provide a different form of support when help from family, friends and professionals is not enough, or not available. There are now many thousands of groups in the UK based on many different needs.

Most professionals value self help support groups, appreciating their special type of support and information. They want to work with them and are prepared to learn the best ways to do so. This book aims to help individual professionals working in health and social services to assess, extend or change how they work with self help support groups on a day-to-day basis. It is a handbook, not a textbook, providing guidelines and checklists and illustrated with quotes from both professionals and members of groups.

It aims to answer common questions, such as:

• How much can a professional be involved?
• How can I link my patients with self help support groups?
• What do I do when things go wrong?
• Can I start a group?
• What will I do if they stat commenting on what we do?

Working with self help support groups requires awareness, knowledge and skills. How to Work with Self Help Groups is the first book to provide broad guidance for a range of professionals; social workers, nurses and doctors are among the different professionals who will find it useful. The book offers guidelines for five different ways in which professionals can effectively work with groups. It draws common threads together, including the very real difficulties that go alongside opportunities to develop work with self help support groups.

Leaving a Legacy - helping the work of self help to continue after your death
Published by Self Help Nottingham, price £2.00

Information on making a Will, working out your assets, leaving a legacy and inheritance tax. The booklet also suggests that groups could be helped by mourners giving donations in memoriam of the deceased.

Good Practice Guidelines - Self Help and Black and Ethnic Communities; seeta Patel, Mark Avis, Barbara-Anne Walker, Caroline Bell, Judith Jarjou; published in 2006 by The University of Nottingham School of Nursing and Self Help Nottingham, price £2.50

These guidelines are the result of a 3 year research project, funded by the Big Lottery, to highlight good practice and describe methods to increase participation in self help support groups amongst Black and Minority Ethnic communities.