Federal Association of Relatives of Mentally Ill People

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The Federal Association of Relatives of Mentally Ill People eV (BApK) is a nationwide self-help organization that is active for the needs of family members of mentally ill people and those affected themselves. As a family self-help psychiatry , it works together with its more than 8,500 members from 15 state associations - and at the local level in numerous self-help groups - for a continuous improvement of the situation of mentally ill people and their families on all political and social levels.

history

Since the second half of the 1960s, there have been efforts to attach greater importance to the relatives of mentally ill people with their worries, problems and ideas in psychiatric care. At the beginning of the 1970s, Klaus Dörner , who later became the mentor of German-speaking social psychiatry , tried out the idea of ​​a group of relatives in a psychiatric day clinic in Hamburg . At around the same time, the first conferences for relatives took place with the support of the umbrella organization for psychosocial aid associations (today: umbrella association for community psychiatry ). In 1975, in the context of the psychiatry inquiry, the role of relatives was explicitly discussed. In 1982 in Bonn - Bad Godesberg and in 1984 in Neckargemünd there were relatives' conferences, which warned an increasing networking of relatives of mentally ill people.

As a result, the Federal Association of Mentally Ill People (BApK) was founded in 1985. In the second half of the 1980s, regional associations of the relatives of mentally ill people were founded until the 1990s. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the commitment of the BApK, among others, ensured that the relatives of mentally ill people also got a lobby in the new federal states.

Goal setting

The aim of the BApK e. V. is the de-stigmatization of mental illnesses and the social and legal equality of somatic and mentally ill people. In order to achieve this, the association is committed to providing psychiatric and psychosocial care that is tailored to the individual needs of the sick and based on the latest research , and of low-threshold, community-based and networked care.

A central concern is the establishment and networking of groups of relatives. Through various collaborations and projects with federal ministries, health insurance companies, specialist societies and welfare associations and other associations, BApK e. V. succeeded in establishing the principle of self-help as an important part of civic engagement in politics. Today the BApK e. V. supports the work of the more than 500 regional self-help groups nationwide, offers a variety of advice and information, and lobbies and represents interests in the federal states, regions and municipalities.

deals

  • Seminar: Mentally ill at work
  • Psychiatry self-help network
  • Low-threshold brochures for education about mental illnesses

"SeeleFon" hotlines

With the SeeleFon , the association has set up two information hotlines that support the sick and relatives and friends of the mentally ill. The second hotline (“SeeleFon for refugees”) supports the languages Arabic , German , English and French and is operated jointly with the umbrella organization for company health insurance funds and the Northwest Regional Association of the BKK and informs the sick about possibilities for psychiatric care. The SeeleFon for refugees was activated in autumn 2016, the German-speaking SeeleFon in 2011. They provide low-threshold information and are offered confidentially and anonymously. In addition, there is also advice by email .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Price for the “SeeleFon”. In: Eppendorfer newspaper for psychiatry and social issues. October 13, 2017, accessed April 24, 2018 .