The team at this advice center can be contacted free of charge and provides concrete, individual and unbureaucratic help. The employees present their tasks using two examples.

Sabine Wunsch[1] contacted the social psychiatric service when she noticed that her brother was no longer going to work and had been lying in bed for several days. "At first I thought I could cope with the situation on my own. It will go away," she recalls. When there was still no improvement after a month, she became increasingly worried. But where do you turn in a situation like this? The Salzgitter resident came across the number for the social psychiatric service on the city's website. "I was able to talk openly about my worries and fears for the first time and was taken seriously," says the sister.

That same week, a joint visit was arranged with the brother, during which the social worker from the social psychiatric service explained the clinical picture of depression to the siblings and explained the options of an inpatient stay in a specialist clinic, care in a day clinic or outpatient psychotherapy. She was relieved that her brother accepted the offer and, after a waiting period with bridging discussions with the employee and the specialist, successfully got a therapy place in a psychiatric clinic.

Stefan Rudolf fared differently to Sabine Wunsch. As more and more reports about coronavirus emerged, his worries about becoming infected grew. "People I knew didn't really take my fears seriously and dismissed them as normal, because of course everyone was worried about them," says the young man. He was aware that at the age of 24 and with no previous illnesses, he was not in the risk group, but he still avoided any contact with other people and shied away from going to the supermarket. Since the first lockdown in March 2020, Stefan Rudolf has only left his home for errands that cannot be postponed and only under increased protective measures. He noticed how he withdrew more and more from contact with friends and sometimes no longer felt like talking to them. Instead, he slept late, was awake at night, ate little and saw less and less meaning in his life.

He then saw the contact details of the social psychiatric service's advice hotline online at the municipal contact points around Corona. He felt liberated after the very first phone call. "Thanks to the regular conversations and tips on meaningful ways to pass the time, I was able to rebuild a regular daily structure and feel better," says the young adult. "My goal is to reduce my anxiety so that I can at least go out for a walk."

[1] All names have been changed and stories altered beyond recognition