IN the field of patient rehabilitation an increasingly greater role is played each year by lay organizations. Conditions that require constant care by the patient himself or are socially embarrassing have given particular impetus to mutual-aid societies for "qualified" members only — for instance, the American Diabetes Association and Alcoholics Anonymous. Organized self-help has in some cases become an important tool at the disposal of the physician in teaching his patient to live with a handicap.HistoryUnaware of this trend, 9 young women with ileostomies met for the first time in Boston in October, 1952. The objective was to . . .