Telephone counseling in times of crisis: over one million contacts

In 2023, a year of war and crisis, the advice and comfort of the telephone counseling service was once again in demand. Many people contacted the volunteers with their worries and fears. It was often about loneliness.

, and Elizabeth Wells

2023 December 22 . 7:33 AM

2 min read

The telephone counseling handbook lies in front of a telephone in the offices of the telephone....aussiedlerbote.de — The telephone counseling handbook lies in front of a telephone in the offices of the telephone counseling service. Photo.aussiedlerbote.de

Loneliness - Telephone counseling in times of crisis: over one million contacts

As the year drew to a close, more than one million people once again contacted the telephone counseling service with their worries, needs and fears. The war in the Middle East and Ukraine, loneliness and depressive moods often triggered the calls, as Ludger Storch, Chairman of the nationwide telephone counseling working group on statistics, explained.

There is not yet a detailed final evaluation for 2023, but the number of contacts will be in the same order of magnitude as in the previous year with around 1.2 million calls. More than a quarter of the calls - around 27 percent - are made in North Rhine-Westphalia, said Storch, who is also the head of the Bochum telephone counseling service.

In addition to calls, anonymous contact is also possible via chat or email. In recent years, there have been well over 30,000 chats and well over 41,000 emails exchanged. Over 7,700 volunteers work for the telephone counseling service across Germany.

According to Storch, 2023 was another year marked by crises, which "affected the feeling of life in different crisis situations". "The war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East have left many people worried and anxious." The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are still reverberating, as is particularly evident in social contacts and frequent social anxiety. The price increases have also often left their mark on everyday life, Storch told the German Press Agency.

Loneliness was still the number one topic on the phone, with more than one in five callers talking about it. Fears and depressive moods are very frequently discussed. Suicidal thoughts are also mentioned in many contacts. A particularly large number of people in the 30 to 69 age group are represented on the telephone, while the age structure tends to be somewhat younger in chat and email.

According to an initial preliminary assessment, the number of counseling sessions at Nummer gegen Kummer, which covers the target groups of children, young people and parents, also remained at the high level of 2022 (around 121,500 counseling sessions). The Ukraine helpline for people who have fled the war continues to be in high demand.