Self-Help Groups for Parents of Children with Intractable Diseases: A Qualitative Study of Their Organisational Problems

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the organisational problems, and in particular the leadership problems, of self-help groups in Japan for parents whose children have intractable diseases. Since 1993, I have been involved with these parent groups, and have conducted three sorts of qualitative interview: thirteen informal conversational interviews, four focus group interviews, and fourteen guided interviews, involving the members of twenty-one parent groups. Part of the research...