Support and advice services in the Oder-Spree district

On 31 August, a violent incident took place in Erkner in which a woman was fatally injured. The police are investigating.
 

District Administrator Frank Steffen has spoken emotionally about this latest incident in the Oder-Spree district. “Whilst we are still trying to come to terms with the events in Gosen-Neu Zittau, we are once again confronted with news that leaves us all deeply shaken. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends.”

In this situation, too, our heartfelt thanks go to the emergency services and our emergency counsellors in the district, who are carrying out a heavy and emotionally demanding workload in such a short space of time. In this context, the Oder-Spree district would like to draw attention to a short-term support service offered by Frankfurt Hospital (Oder), which also provides support for those offering help. In collaboration with the relevant psychiatric and psychosocial services, on 2 September at the conference centre of the Immanuel Clinic in Rüdersdorf, there will be group sessions for adults, children and young people.
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The district also wishes to place greater emphasis on its low-threshold services, which enable families – and women in particular – to seek advice and help anonymously. First and foremost are the parenting and family counselling centres (EFB), which offer a wide range of services, including family therapy, and which also form part of a network providing further support.
 

Katja Kaiser, Head of the Department for Youth, Social Affairs and Culture in the Oder-Spree district, expresses her deepest sympathy to those affected and appeals: “We have an extremely wide range of counselling and support services in the Oder-Spree district – those affected must pluck up the courage to turn to these services. The sooner, the better – but it is never too late to seek help.”

The focus of the work in the district is, first and foremost, of course, on preventing offences, addressing risk factors and, last but not least, raising awareness of the support services available.

In addition to the parenting and family counselling centres, there are two women’s refuges in the district, which provide support to women both on a residential basis and through a mobile 24-hour on-call service. Contact details for both organisations (Frauen für Frauen e.V. and Frauen helfen Frauen e.V.) are attached to this press release.
 

Katja Kaiser emphasises: “In a family context, the Youth Welfare Office is of course always available as a point of contact, but the Social Psychiatric Service is also on hand to deal with specific issues or to refer cases. In our work, we naturally focus very much on those who experience violence or feel threatened by it. However, the call to seek help is always set within the wider family context – counsellor at the relevant organisations are trained to find solutions for both sides.”

The district’s Social Psychiatric Service is the point of contact for adults experiencing mental health crises. It provides advice, assesses support needs and, where necessary, refers people to medical, psychiatric or psychosocial support services. However, it cannot replace police intervention to avert danger or specialised violence counselling.

Looking to the future, it is clear that there is a continuing need for places in women’s refuges and that financial adjustments must also be made to the existing structures. At state level, the current challenge is to ascertain the specific needs in order to be able to estimate concrete capacities.

With the commitment to the Istanbul Convention and the Protection Against Violence Act, the expansion of women’s shelter places is being tackled nationwide and, with the recently adopted “Guidelines on High-Risk Management” (Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Social Cohesion (MASGZ)), this is being rolled out in counselling centres.