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This article explores the contribution of self-help/mutual aid groups to mental well-being. Self-help/mutual aid groups are self-organising groups where people come together to address a shared a health or social issue through mutual support. They are associated with a range of health and social benefits, but remain poorly understood. This article draws on data from stage one of ESTEEM, a project which runs from 2010 to 2013. Stage one ran from 2010 to 2011 and involved participatory, qualitative research carried out in two UK sites. Twenty-one groups were purposively selected to include a range of focal issues, longevity, structures and ethnic backgrounds. Researchers carried out 21 interviews with group coordinators and twenty group discussions with members to explore the groups' purpose, nature and development. Preliminary analysis of the data suggested that mental well-being was a common theme across the groups. Subsequently the data were re-analysed to explore the groups' contribution to mental well-being using a checklist of protective factors for mental well-being as a coding framework. The findings showed that groups made a strong contribution to members' mental well-being by enhancing a sense of control, increasing resilience and facilitating participation. Group members were uplifted by exchanging emotional and practical support; they gained self-esteem, knowledge and confidence, thereby increasing their control over their situation. For some groups, socio-economic factors limited their scope and threatened their future. The article provides an evidence-base which illustrates how self-help/mutual aid groups can enhance mental well-being. If supported within a strategy for social justice, these groups enable people with varied concerns to develop a tailored response to their specific needs. The authors suggest that policy-makers engage with local people, investing in support proportionate to the needs of different populations, enabling them to develop their own self-help/mutual aid groups to enhance their sense of mental well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on an analysis of a practice database held by Self Help Nottingham, an organisation that supports local self-help groups. The database contains details of 936 groups that closed between 1982 and 2007. The aim of the study is to provide qualitative and descriptive quantitative information about the life-cycles of self-help groups, the problems that they face throughout their existence and the likelihood of different problems leading to their closure. The database was not collated for research purposes and so we restrict our discussion of the findings to identification of broad patterns regarding the birth and closure rates of different types of group and questions for future research. Comparisons were made between groups that addressed different types of problem, groups with different memberships and groups that had reached different stages in their existence. There was reasonable consistency in the survival rates of different types of group with physical health groups being the most likely to reach maturity followed by mental health and lastly social issue groups. Survival rates for groups that serve different membership populations were reasonably constant although there were some anomalies. There were high levels of consistency regarding the reasons for closure for groups closing at different stages of maturity. The most commonly cited reasons among all groups were the withdrawal of a ‘key’ member and a decline in membership. The article suggests that some of the assumptions and prescriptions within the existing literature need to be considered in light of more detailed empirical evidence, and it raises questions about the theoretical understanding of self-help groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]