Ulm (epd). The effects of the corona pandemic have now also reached the counseling services. The Ulm/Alb-Donau Diakonie Association has recorded a significant increase in numbers, especially in debt counseling and the psychological counseling center. The capacities of the debt counseling service are completely exhausted, which is why there are already over 80 people seeking help on the waiting list, said Diakonie Managing Director Pastor Petra Frey to the Evangelical Press Service (epd).
The trigger for the economic hardship is often a loss of salary and earnings due to the pandemic. For as long as possible, the people affected tried to keep themselves afloat by using up financial reserves or receiving donations from relatives and friends. These options have now been exhausted, so the only option left is debt counseling, explained Frey.
The main aim of the Diakonie debt counseling service is to ensure that people who are in debt can keep their homes. Anyone who ends up on the street will find it very difficult to get back on their feet professionally and socially, says the Diakonie’s managing director. According to Frey, the Diakonie’s psychological counseling service has also registered a significant increase in cases with its educational work and “offender work against domestic violence”. According to statistics, the “offender work” provided advice in 45 cases last year – and the trend is rising.
The approach of this counseling is for the perpetrators to work on themselves and fundamentally change their behavior, said Frey. This allows the family to maintain its structures and its everyday life. Until now, women have been the main victims of domestic violence on two counts: to escape violent attacks from their husbands, they and their children have to move out and often start a largely new life in a new environment.
The problem of domestic violence urgently needs to be “de-stigmatized,” stresses Mario Stahr, a consultant for perpetrator work at the Diakonie and board member of the Federal Working Group on Perpetrator Work in Domestic Violence. In Baden-Württemberg alone, there were 16,400 cases of partner violence last year. This violence in a relationship cuts across “all age groups, all social classes, levels of education and religions.”
According to Pastor Frey, the Diakonie’s work with perpetrators can continue as a project at least until 2027. Overall, however, the Diakonie’s managing director is concerned about the future. General social counseling is also a basic service that is part of the diaconal “basic service” financed by the church. That is why no one is turned away from the counseling centers. However, if the church’s funds continue to decline, the services offered will have to be reduced, which would be “very, very painful” given the increasing need for counseling, for example from old, lonely people, the Diakonie’s head fears.
