John Quinton Hodges, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Missouri-Columbia, 721 Clark Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, 573-884-2336, hodgesjq@missouri.edu

Self-help services have become increasingly prevalent in mental health; consumers now deliver many services once provided by professional mental health agencies. This exploratory study in one large midwestern state examines differences among self-help users and non self-help users in a representative sample of 311 consumers of professional mental health services. Half of these consumers used self-help. Self-help services ranged from formally structured consumer-run mental health self-help agencies to more loosely structured support groups. All function under the helping technology of mutual support. Mutual support is the technology whereby someone with experiential knowledge of a mental illness helps another with their illness. Both parties benefit, as the helper gets to “give back” while helping someone else. The two groups (self-help compared to non self-help) were compared on a number of dimensions related to their utilization of and satisfaction with professional mental health services. Self-help users reported more barriers to service, and rated services as less useful, but also perceived services as more available and used more services when compared to non self-help users. No differences between the two groups were found in the areas of demographics, affordability of services, and satisfaction with services. Findings related to policy, practice, and research are discussed.

Learning Objectives: