ESRA (Vienna)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Entrance to the ESRA psychosocial center. The white columns are reminiscent of the Leopoldstädter Tempel , which was destroyed in 1938 and located at this point.

ESRA is a psychosocial center in Vienna that 1994 Nazi survivors, Jewish immigrants to the inside and migrants and Jewish population of Vienna was set up. ESRA also treats severely traumatized asylum seekers of all denominations .

Surname

The Aramaic male name "Esra" means "help", but can also be understood as a short form of the Hebrew Azariah "YHWH helped". The Turkish women's name "Esra", on the other hand, is of Arabic origin and means "the fastest one". The earliest tradition of the name Esra ( Hebrew עֶזְרָא) comes from the Bible . There, in the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament, the story of the eponymous prophet is described, who brought the Jews back to Israel from captivity in Babylon. The name Esra is mentioned from chapter 7.

activity

The ESRA Psychosocial Center offers comprehensive professional help to people who have been traumatized by persecution, torture, migration, mistreatment, disasters or other serious events. With a variety of offers in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology, care and social work, people are supported in processing the psychological consequences of traumatic experiences and developing new life perspectives. One focus is the work with survivors of Nazi persecution, regardless of religion, ethnicity, political convictions or sexual orientation as well as with their descendants and relatives. In addition, ESRA is the contact point for Jews living in Vienna on all psychosocial issues.

Since many clients and patients often need advice in other areas of their life in addition to medical treatment - for example with financial problems, in living and working areas or in matters relating to foreign law - they can use both outpatient and social work services depending on their individual needs Needs. The basis for this is the interdisciplinary cooperation between employees who belong to many different professional groups.

The multi-professional team works interdisciplinary, target group-oriented and multilingual. Through cooperation with other organizations and institutions, traumatized people outside of Vienna can also receive professional care.

Over the years, ESRA's areas of activity have been continuously expanded: there were also child and youth counseling services, the open café, the SchelAnu senior citizens' club and the social work clearing center. The care of Nazi survivors was extended to the federal states. ESRA also looks after target groups for people who were expelled from Austria after 1938 and who now live abroad.

Target groups

ESRA's offers are open to the following people:

  • Survivors of Nazi persecution who live in Austria or come from Austria
  • Descendants and relatives of victims of Nazi persecution
  • of the Jewish population of Vienna
  • People after acute trauma or people who suffer from the chronic consequences of a traumatic event

Foundation, location

In the middle of the 19th century there was an increasing influx of Jewish people from different parts of the monarchy to Vienna. The city ​​temple in Seitenstettengasse , inaugurated in 1826, became too small and in May 1854 Emperor Franz Joseph granted permission to build a new synagogue in Leopoldstadt . Between 1854 and 1858 the so-called Great Leopoldstadt Temple was built in Tempelgasse 3–5 . The building became the largest synagogue in Austria and offered space for around 3,500 people. The architect was Ludwig Förster , who also designed the Great Synagogue in Budapest. In the night of the pogrom from November 9th to 10th, 1938, the main wing with the synagogue was completely destroyed.

The southern wing of the synagogue was razed in 1951 and replaced by a residential building ( Desider-Friedmann-Hof ). The northern side wing, however, still serves as a place of prayer for the Jewish community today. In addition to a prayer house, a Talmud Torah school of the Agudas Israel was also housed here. The synagogue, however, was replaced by a new building with apartments.

In 1994, on the initiative of the chairman of the social commission of the Israelite cultural community (IKG) (Alexander Friedmann), the head of the social department of the IKG (Elvira Glück) and a small group of committed representatives of civil society, after a two-year preparation period, the ESRA psychosocial center became part of the Israelite cultural community Vienna and the City of Vienna . The primary goal was to offer Nazi survivors professional advice and treatment regardless of their religion , ethnicity , political convictions or sexual orientation .

tasks

The two psychiatrists Alexander Friedmann (1948–2008) and David Vyssoki (born 1948), medical director from 1994 to 2011, as well as Elvira Glück (born 1960), director of ESRA from 1994 to 1999 and head of the social department of the IKG from 1990 until 1999, shaped the new institution significantly. The main focus of the work was and is the psychosocial care of survivors of Nazi persecution, as well as their descendants, who mostly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. ESRA made and continues to make a western contribution to the integration process and is interdisciplinary. Those seeking advice receive both medical treatment and social work under one roof. Connected are both a communication center and a coffee house, as well as a kosher lunch menu. Advice and support are largely provided in their mother tongue, in addition to German, also in English, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish and Italian.

The institution was recognized by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) as a community service facility. ESRA is one of the supporting organizations in the Vienna Alliance against Depression and has been commissioned by the BMI and FSW to provide psychotherapeutic care for traumatized asylum seekers .

Advanced training

The institution regularly organizes scientific lectures and specialist conferences, in particular on all problems relating to psychotrauma . At the symposium on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Psychosocial Center, which took place in October 2014 in the orangery of Schönbrunn Palace , important trauma experts such as Boris Cyrulnik (Toulon), Judith Lewis Herman (Harvard), Bessel van der Kolk (Boston) spoke. , Zahava Solomon (Tel Aviv), Harvey M. Weinstein (Berkeley) and Martin Auerbach (Jerusalem). The institution's staff regularly publish scientific articles and books.

Dr. Alexander Friedmann Prize

Every year ESRA awards the Alexander Friedmann Prize for achievements in psychosocial counseling, care or treatment, as well as in the field of science, which above all go beyond ethnic borders. The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros.

Team and management

The multi-professional team consists of specialists , psychotherapists , psychologists , social pedagogues , psychiatric certified health and nurses , graduates of the technical college or the academy for social work as well as administrative staff, community service providers and interns. In addition, employees also volunteer as part of the visiting service. This interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation within an institution meets the needs of traumatized people with post-traumatic stress disorder or other trauma-related disorders, closes supply gaps in the support network and protects against retraumatising care situations.

The friendly three-person management consists of the medical director Klaus Mihacek , the director of social work Gerda Netopil and the managing director Peter Schwarz. The honorary chairman of the association is the former medical director David Vyssoki .

Quote

"At ESRA, people who have lost internal security are given external security again."

- Michaela Mathae : Former Head of Social Services at ESRA in 2004

Award

literature

  • Alexander Friedmann , Elvira Glück , David Vyssoki (eds.): Surviving the Shoah - and afterwards. Long-term consequences of persecution from a scientific point of view . Picus-Verlag, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85452-426-9 .
  • Alexander Friedmann, Peter Hofmann, Brigitte Lueger-Schuster, Maria Steinbauer, David Vyssoki (eds.): Psychotrauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder . Verlag Springer, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-211-83882-1 .
  • Alexander Emanuely , David Vyssoki: Repressed memory and lack of social support. In: H. Belndorfer, S. Bolbecher , P. Roessler and H. Staud (eds.): Zwischenwelt 12: Subject des Erinnerns? Vienna, Klagenfurt / Celovec 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ESRA Vienna Psychosocial Center. Retrieved April 24, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Life in the country of the perpetrators. The psychosocial. (PDF) Retrieved April 24, 2017 .
  3. ↑ arche.or.at: David Vyssoki
  4. ^ Health facilities of the City of Vienna , accessed on June 12, 2015
  5. ↑ Trauma info , brief description of the goals of ESRA, accessed on June 14, 2015
  6. ^ Community service agency , accessed on June 12, 2015
  7. ^ Alliance against Depression , Outpatient Clinics and Advice Centers, accessed on June 14, 2015
  8. ↑ Günter Lekauf, Maria Eder: Basic concepts of the asylum procedure in Austria , on terminology guide German / Russian, accessed on June 14, 2015
  9. ↑ Psychotrauma ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Findings of Science and Responsibility of Society, accessed on June 14, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.symposium-psychotrauma.com
  10. ↑ Dissociation and trauma  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Trauma Beratung Leipzig, accessed on June 14, 2015 (with a contribution by ESRA employee Bettina Jordan)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dissoziation-und-trauma.de  
  11. ↑ © 2013 ESRA: Psychosocial Center ESRA - The Organization. Retrieved April 24, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Klaus Oberrauner: ESRA: Interview with the medical director. ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: wieninternational.at of July 17, 2014, accessed on June 11, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wieninternational.at
  13. ↑ ORF -Science: Ten years psychosocial center ESRA in Vienna , Submitted by Barbara Daser, 11 November 2004