Secondarily affected people support each other –shared experiences increase understanding.
Mutual support by and for friends and family of people with mental health problems is available both at our offices and in our self-help groups around town. Someone who shares the experience of being secondarily affected by mental health issues will have an entirely different approach to the problems and needs of relatives and friends than a professional in the care system. This idea is at the basis of our support of self-help-activities. In the self-help groups, the focus is not on diagnosis but on the level of relationships: A sibling of a person diagnosed with schizophrenia is likely to share most experiences with someone else’s sibling, no matter what this someone has been diagnosed with. What is important is the contact between people and exchange of experiences. We have seen how important and useful it is for all parties involved to keep learning from each other and pass on, as peer-counsellors, the knowledge that each acquires about mental problems and how to deal with them. Therefore, we have set up ongoing training programmes for our volunteer peer-counsellors.
Contact us to find out more about our work with relatives and friends. We look forward to hearing from you.
Your team at ApK Berlin