Abstracts by key term: rare diseases
Self-help in the healthcare system is not individual self-help, but self-organized mutual assistance between people who share the relevant characteristics and life situations significantly shaped by these characteristics, and thus, in cooperative terms, meet the needs of their members on a mutual basis. It is self-organized, but social—in this case, a communal care practice. This applies especially at the micro level of social group activities. The specific characteristics of rare diseases (Achse 2010: 26) will be considered shortly. Professionalization and formalization begin with the formation of associations at the meso- and macro-levels (cf. www.achse-online.de; www.namse.de, and pan-European www.eurodis.org). This, in turn, will be of interest shortly, especially from a political science perspective.