Barstad met with CCSR to discuss previous methods of research, methods of assisting self-help groups and how to integrate self-help groups into professional services. More specifically, Barstad was gaining input on Norway’s national initiative to incorporate self-help groups into health and human services. Barstad is a part of a research team in Norway who is trying to better understand the diversity of self-help groups in the country and the relation between self-help services and professional services.
His two days included meetings with CCSR Director Scott Wituk, the CCSR Research & Evaluation Team and the CCSR Mental Health Consumer Initiatives Team. Additionally, Barstad met with self-help group researchers and experts: Greg Meissen and Lou Medvene from Wichita State University. Finally, he visited with three Kansas self-help organizations: Project Independence, Good Grief of Kansas and Victory in the Valley.
Scott Wituk commented on the recent visit. “What Johan and others in Norway are doing is phenomenal. They are attempting to bring together the very informal, grassroots self-help groups with the professional helping systems to create new forms of sustained, effective, and low-cost care. They are attempting to create empowered patients who actively participate in their health care. Self-help groups can play a role in that. In many ways, the challenges in the U.S. health care system are not too different. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit and learned a great deal. I hope to be working with Johan in the future on a few international self-help projects.”
Photo courtesy of ElBosco
