Addicts often lack suitable care. A project in Halle tries to make low-threshold offers, to encourage personal responsibility and, above all, to stand by the side of those affected in the long term.
Halle (dpa/sa) - The employees of the social therapy center in Halle have been working with addicts with a lot of perseverance for almost 15 years. During a visit on Tuesday, the federal government's drug commissioner, Burkhard Blienert, described the project as exemplary for the care of such diseases. "It has to be about constantly accompanying those affected and their relatives," said Blienert on Tuesday in Saalestadt. The project does both in an "exemplary manner".
The process of sustainable support is lengthy and often marked by setbacks, said an employee of the center. "Addicts usually withdraw." For many people, simply taking on trips and appointments is an insurmountable hurdle, he explained. Here you have to stay on the ball and make low-threshold offers.
The center in Halle supports those affected over a longer period of time. It is also about getting people to take personal responsibility and patiently making low-threshold and unbureaucratic offers, the employee explained. The project relies on this long-term support. Among other things, the addicts could use the wood workshops between 8 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., train their cognitive abilities or attend individual talks and small groups.
The project lives largely from the patience of the employees. "Sometimes patience is the only thing we have to reach people," said the employee. The younger ones often work on very banal things. "The fact that they come here first and take advantage of the offer - in a reasonably acceptable condition - is not a matter of course." According to the expert, addicts often cannot become active on their own.
In addition, the project lives on the trust between the employees and the addicts. Many of the people with an alcohol or drug addiction have largely lost their social contacts, so constructive help is often not available from those around them. For some, the contact point is something like a surrogate family. One participant even celebrated his wedding at the facility. "No one else had it," said the employee.
Addiction is not a stigma, drug commissioner Blienert emphasized. Accompanying such an illness at an early stage is a major challenge for the health and social system. You have to move away from punishment and towards protecting those affected. Close-meshed support like in Halle points in this direction.
The pandemic has shown how fragile and easily disturbed the stability apparently achieved by those affected is, said the employee. Some had become more socially isolated and then reverted to uncontrolled addictive behavior.
The drug commissioner did not want to confirm an increased consumption of addictive substances. You can't give a general answer to that, said Blienert. A lot has shifted into private life and is less visible. However, identifying the vulnerable groups has become much more difficult in the exceptional situation of the pandemic.
