IPSO’s involvement in Germany started back in 2015/16, when Germany took in almost one million refugees. During the arguments between the protagonists of a welcoming culture on the one hand and supporters of a border fence policy mobilised against it on the other, it quickly became clear that there were not enough professionals available to be able to provide psychosocial support to the arrivals. Our contribution to the care and integration of these refugees included advanced training for more than 150 professionals in VBC, establishing a new office in Berlin in addition to our head office in Konstanz for our Germany-based activities (since 2017/18) as well as three care centres in Berlin, Erfurt and Hamburg as open counseling facilities where our multicultural teams of counselors work on a daily basis.
From May 2017 to May 2023 our IPSO CARE online platform (www.ipso-care.com) helped people in emergency situations, in their mother tongues, through more than 50,000 sessions in Germany. Our IPSO Care App has been increasing the support we have provided to for those affected since 2020. It has made it possible for us to significantly expand the scope of our care services and to counteract the feeling of stigmatisation through the discretion provided by this tool.
Our ability to adapt to changing needs has enabled us to design and implement new group models, some of which were subsequently continued on a voluntary basis in self-organisations. We are simultaneously working on the sustainable development of cooperation and strategic partnerships with the providers of asylum shelters and humanitarian aid organisations. Our cooperation with Malteser Werke has enabled us to scale up the services we provide through our model joint care center in Rostock.
After the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began, we started training psychologists from both Ukraine and Russia in cooperation with Malteser Werke. By participating in the Razom project – Support for Supporters – we have also devoted ourselves to the many committed people who provide support to these and other refugees in the form of self-care projects with exchange formats, supervision, and webinars.
Through our work and our counseling approach, we want to contribute to a paradigm shift in mental health care that provides people in emergency situations with adequate low-threshold care and support that is better and faster than ever before. The effectiveness of our work has been proven in several evaluations and studies.
IPSO on Youtube
- On the “Gentle Project”, in Farsi/Dari and in Arabic, each with German subtitles, April 26, 2023
- IPSO Care Psychosocial Counseling, September 23, 2020
IPSO in the media (selection)
- Gegen Gewalt – Hilfe für Geflüchtete. Der Verein IPSO und sein Gentle-Projekt. A ZDF production, Forum am Freitag, June 16, 2023
