Psychosocial counseling by refugees for refugees at accommodations in Berlin

Psychosocial counselors trained by Ipso have been regularly visiting various accommodations for refugees under the administration of the State Office for Refugee Affairs (Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten - LAF) in Berlin since 2018 to offer initial psychosocial counseling and assistance there.

The project is an important and effective addition to the work of the counselors at the Ipso Care Center Berlin. It provides people with access to confidential, culturally sensitive counseling in their native languages who, for various reasons, cannot visit the Ipso Center in person. In addition to the face-to-face counseling at the accommodations, Ipso offers online video counseling on the confidential platform www.ipso-care.com in more than 20 languages.

In addition to individual counseling, the Ipso team organizes regular psychoeducational group sessions for residents of the partner accommodations and conducts initial talks to raise awareness with residents and service providers on site. The counselors also support residents in dealing with conflicts within the accommodation and thus promote a positive spirit of community and strengthen social relations among the residents.

Ipso is interacting continuously with the social workers of the accommodations to provide clients with fast, carefully targeted access to services concerning questions of asylum law, finding accommodation, health, family, etc. These practical measures support the reduction of psychosocial stressors. Ipso works closely with other psychosocial services on site in order to provide the best possible care, especially for clients with severe psychiatric conditions.

In 2020, we offer counseling in the following languages in our outreach work:

• Arabic
• Kurdish / Kurmanci
• Farsi / Dari
• Turkish
• French
• English
• West African languages (Maninka, Fular, Pula)
• Somali

Additional languages are available at www.ipso-care.com:

• Amharic
• Tigrinya

Our (still active or by now closed) partner accommodations are under the following sponsorships:

• Milaa gGmbH
• Malteser Werke gGmbH
• AWO Treptow-Köpenick
• ORS Deutschland GmbH
• Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Bezirksverband Mitte
• CJD Berlin Brandenburg

Contact person: Hussein Alalo, Project coordinator

Funded by: