[Development, situation and perspective of self-help support in Germany]. / Entwicklung, Situation und Perspektiven der Selbsthilfeunterstützung in Deutschland.

Self-help groups and self-help associations are an important part of the social security system. In Germany, self-help contact points, senior citizen centers, volunteer agencies, citizen centers and multi-generation houses combine citizen participation with innovative professional services. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of continuous financial support for these important, locally administered institutions. There are about 280 self-help contact points and more than 400 federal self-help associations that support and promote self-help in Germany. Healthy communities, healthy workplaces and healthy people need a decentralized system of self-help programs operated at local and regional levels, in districts and towns. Thereby, professional support systems that operate self-help programs and promote citizen participation in the self-help programs must be managed in a similar regional format. New forms of cooperation from the regional and local governments, private companies, and citizen engagement already exist. Additionally, regional projects of integrated maintenance systems with the regional health maintenance institutions have been established. Currently, the central challenges of the self-help programs are quality development, inclusion of people with social disadvantages and of people with migrational background. The essential prerequisites for this work are continuous financial support and a politically supported infrastructure, which is in fact an important health investment.

[Evaluation of Germany's sixth national health target entitled "Depressive illnesses - prevention, early diagnosis, sustainable treatment"]. / Evaluation des nationalen Gesundheitsziels "Depressive Erkrankungen: verhindern, früh erkennen, nachhaltig behandeln".

In 2006, Germany's sixth national health target entitled "Depressive illnesses - prevention, early diagnosis, sustainable treatment" was developed by an interdisciplinary group of experts. A total of six areas of activity and proposals for action with potential for improvement were defined. Subsequently, a group of experts was entrusted with designing evaluation strategies, defining indicators of progress, and examining the accessibility of data sources for evaluation. For the primary start-up activities set out in the health targets, specific progress indicators were deduced, and routine data available for evaluation were identified. As a next step, the limitations of these data sources were analyzed and necessary improvements described. Relevant indicators of progress for specific areas of activity have been described, the availability and usability of different existing data sources examined, and further supplements or additional specifications with respect to the indicators described. Due to inadequate data sources, additional systematic surveys are required to evaluate the health target and its implementation. Existing German surveys should be extended by questions concerning relevant measures and progress indicators; various progress indicators should be analyzed on a general basis.

[Health related self-help groups--participation and information level in Germany. Results of the German telephone health survey 2003]. / Gesundheitsbezogene Selbsthilfegruppen -- Beteiligung und Informiertheit in Deutschland -- Ergebnisse des Telefonischen Gesundheitssurveys 2003.

Using the data provided by the German Telephone Health Survey 2003 that gathered health related information from 8,318 adult residents, statements concerning the participation in health related self-help groups and the level of information about self-help groups were analysed. According to the survey 8.9 % of sample have already participated in a health related self-help group, 13 % stated to be informed about this topic but have not taken part in such a group. Women are more often informed about self-help groups and have more frequently reported on participation experience than men. In comparison the level of information and participation in former East Germany is slightly smaller than in West Germany. Further, the frequency of participation experience reported as well as the level of information increased with socioeconomic status; the differences between the social stratums were smaller for participation level than for information level. People reporting to suffer from chronic health conditions or to have severe handicaps, stated approximately twice as often to be informed about self-help groups as people who did not so. Compared to estimates for the beginning of the eighties the results indicate an increased part of German population stating experiences with health related self-help groups. Especially persons affected by chronic illnesses and severe handicaps reported to be or have been active in self-help groups. However, apparently a considerable unused self-help potential still exists.