A support group is a community created by people who have something in common and a task to perform. Generally that task involves information exchange, achievement of a goal, personal growth, or healing on the part of group members.

The group itself is both a vehicle for achieving group goals and a resource for individual members to [Page 890]rely on for help in meeting their changing needs over time. The ideas and issues of the group thus flow normally from the needs of the members.

The creation of support structures based on common issues and concerns is natural to the human experience. Birds of a feather flock together for a reason. Over the past 50 years, research on support groups and self-help groups has consistently reported that ...