More and more people are turning to telephone counseling
Bless you
The number of calls from those seeking advice has risen again compared to the previous year. The coronavirus pandemic now also plays a noticeable role in telephone counseling.
The weeks before Christmas are a particular challenge for people with emotional hardships. This is also observed by the employees of the Salzburg telephone counseling, its head Gerhard Darmann confirms: “The number has risen again from over 17,000 calls in the previous year to over 18,000.”
Often it is not so much about advice, but simply about listening and letting people talk – but that is a particular challenge with the rush around Christmas on the telephone lines, says Darmann: “If someone contacts us, I can follow up Say 10 minutes, yes, unfortunately the talk time is up now – other callers are waiting on the line, we have to be shorter. It’s difficult. “
In addition to psychological stress, such as relationship conflicts or problems in professional life, recent calls have also often been about disputes caused by Corona within families, says Darmann. A total of 120 women and men look after the callers of the telephone counseling service, and they all do this on a voluntary basis.