GROW is a peer support and mutual-aid organization for recovery from, and prevention of, serious mental illness. GROW was founded in Sydney, Australia in 1957 by Father Cornelius B. "Con" Keogh, a Roman Catholic priest, and psychiatric patients who sought help with their mental illness in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Consequently, GROW adapted many of AA's principles and practices. There are more than 800 GROW groups active worldwide.
The Four Essential Features of Grow include:
- Network of Mutual Help Groups: organized and friendly help groups that follow a standard format or “Group Method.” This enables any member to lead the meeting and ensures that groups are both supportive and productive. Meetings include a personal testimony, problem-solving with assignment of practical tasks, reports on progress, and development of new understandings through mutual education.
- Written Program of Recovery & Personal Growth: GROW members learn new ways of thinking and acting through group participation. The Program is a written, structured philosophy of life and psychology of mental health for the ordinary person. It was born out of our founders’ resolve to record and keep what worked in their own recovery, and its continued development has been ensured by GROW leaders over the years.
- Community: members realize weekly group work in their daily lives. The GROW community is based on a network of friendships and developed through diverse social, educational and leadership events. Friendship is the foundation of the Caring leadership and Sharing Community and the special key to mental health.
- The Organisation: maintaining an organizational and legal structure.
