Self-help contact centre Waldeck-Frankenberg - 10 years of support for self-help
The Waldeck-Frankenberg self-help contact point can celebrate a small anniversary: the service has now been available in the district for 10 years, officially recognised on 30 November 2015 by the state working group of self-help contact points in Hesse. The self-help contact centre not only provides advice on the topic of self-help and on working in a self-help group. It also organises exchange and networking meetings for self-help activists as well as self-help walks and cafés and offers further training. Self-help groups benefit from the good networking of the contact centre with experts from the health and social sectors as well as from its cooperation with healthcare facilities. Those affected are put in touch with existing self-help groups and new groups are supported in their formation.
"Our aim was and is to create a self-help-friendly and self-help-supportive climate in our district with the help of the contact centre," emphasises First District Councillor and Head of Health Karl-Friedrich Frese. Since the contact centre was founded, it has fortunately already been successful in making the idea of self-help much better known in Waldeck-Frankenberg than was the case 10 years ago. The statistics speak for themselves: 86 self-help groups are currently supported by the contact centre, and the number of newly founded groups has increased in recent years. And the well over 3,000 counselling sessions that have been held since the contact centre opened also confirm the availability of the service.
The location of the contact centre in the district's health department ensures close cooperation with other counselling services such as the social psychiatric service and the care authority. The "Self-help guide" under the motto "Talking helps me" also offers those seeking advice an overview of the self-help groups in the district. It contains the current details of the groups, contact persons, locations and times of meetings and group activities. The brochure can be requested free of charge and is available to download from the district's website at www.landkreis-waldeck-frankenberg, keyword "Selbsthilfewegweiser" - in addition to further information on the self-help groups and the contact centre.
The self-help contact centre wants to expand its services even further. For example, there are plans to cooperate with clinics, psychotherapists, registered doctors and nursing schools in the future. The aim is to enable staff at these institutions to provide their patients with more targeted advice on group-based self-help or refer them to the contact centre. Due to the demographic development, the contact centre also wants to focus more on care self-help, i.e. set up groups for caring relatives in the district and build up a network around the topic of care self-help.