Help with mental illness: Adults

Mental stress and mental illness can affect anyone and have a variety of causes. Counseling services can provide relief and support not only in crisis situations.

• Do you have emotional problems and feel bad? Are you in a crisis?
• Are you looking for competent help or advice on a mental illness for yourself or a relative?
• Are you feeling "upside down" and looking for contact and closeness?
• Would you like to meet other people to talk or play a board game and decide for yourself whether illness and health are an issue?

In the contact and advice centers of the Social Psychiatric Centers (SPZ), staff offer you comprehensive help free of charge in the event of mental illness or emotional stress. There is also the possibility of counseling by those affected for those affected ("peer counseling").

You can also get support from the many volunteers and self-help groups withtheir wide range of counseling services in your area.

The OEG trauma outpatient clinics provide specialized and immediately available services for victims of violence.

You can find more information about the trauma outpatient clinics here

You can findcentral points of contact for the treatment of mental illness in our LVR clinics, for example: these offer both outpatient and (partial) inpatient psychiatric care.

In the social psychiatric centers (SPZ) in the Rhineland, people with mental health problems or illnesses and their relatives can find a wide range of easily accessible contact and advice services.

The services are free of charge, anonymous and open-ended, regardless of gender, religion or nationality.

You have the opportunity to spend time in a pleasant atmosphere, socialize, have a cup of coffee or tea together or take part in the various group activities.

If you need further help, for example in the form of advice on mental stress or illness, both professional staff and those affected (peer counselors) are available to talk to you in person. Together with you, they will try to find a suitable offer for you personally.

If there is still a lack of German language skills, it is possible to call in language and integration mediators, who are financed by the LVR.

If you feel mentally stressed or ill yourself or as a relative, it can be helpful to talk to other people affected. In addition to professional help from the social psychiatric centers (SPZ), there are often self-help groups or volunteers in the immediate vicinity who can provide you with advice and help.

Self-help means taking your own problems into your own hands and actively looking for a solution with other affected people. The group members support each other in coping with their illness or their particular situation, inform and motivate each other. Self-help groups can also be helpful for relatives and friends.

Older people are often faced with other questions that previously did not seem important.

For example:

• Why do I keep forgetting appointments
• Why do I no longer sleep through the night?

In the advice centers of the Gerontopsychiatric Centers (GPZ), people of an advanced age as well as their relatives or caregivers receive advice on all important topics in old age, such as memory problems, Alzheimer's disease and dementia. They also provide information on care, support and other assistance.

The geriatric psychiatric outpatient clinics at the LVR clinics also offer advice and treatment specifically for very old people.

In many cases, the LVR finances language and integration mediators for people with a refugee or migrant background if their German language skills are not yet sufficient.

Contact the LVR Competence Center Migration.

Further information is available here