1. The relevance of different trust models for representation in patient organizations: conceptual considerations.
- Author
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Gerhards, Helene, Jongsma, Karin, and Schicktanz, Silke
- Subjects
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PATIENTS' associations , *GROUP decision making , *PATIENT participation , *PATIENT representatives , *TRUST , *MEDICAL care , *ETHICS , *INTERVIEWING , *PATIENT advocacy , *MATHEMATICAL models of psychology , *SUPPORT groups , *QUALITATIVE research - Abstract
Background: Trust within organizations is important for ensuring members' acceptance of the organization's activities and to expand their scope of action. Remarkably, Patient Organizations (POs) that often both function as a forum for self-help and represent patients on the health-political level, have been understudied in this respect. This paper analyzes the relation between trust and representation in POs. We distinguish between two models of representation originating from political theory: the trustee and delegate model and between two types of trust: horizontal and vertical trust.Methods: Our theoretical approach is illustrated with an analysis of 13 interviews with representatives of German POs.Results: We have found that the delegate model requires horizontal trust and the trustee model vertical trust. Both models: horizontal/delegate and vertical/trustee exist within single POs.Conclusions: The representation process within POs demands a balancing act between inclusion of affected persons and strategically aggregating a clear-cut political claim. Trust plays in that process of coming from individual wishes to collective and political standpoints a major role both in terms of horizontal as well as vertical trust. Horizontal trust serves the communication between affected members, and vertical trust allows representatives to be decisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2017
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