When people are discouraged or depressed, they can be helped to get professional help.
Image: picture alliance / JOKER
What to do if your partner or a work colleague seems depressed? In an interview, psychiatrist Michael Deuschle explains what the first steps are. He trains people in mental health first aid courses.
Mr. Deuschle, you are a psychiatrist and offer first aid courses for mental health in the “Mental Health First Aid” (MHFA) program. Do you focus on people who have suffered trauma?
The program is aimed at everyone – because everyone in the family, with acquaintances or colleagues can meet people who are not feeling well at the moment. However, it is not always severe trauma that throws people off balance and also burdens their loved ones. It can be an alcohol, pill or drug addiction, as well as psychosis, depression or anxiety disorders. These mental illnesses are encountered more often than you think in your immediate social environment. But it can also happen that you are confronted on the subway with a person who is suffering from an acute psychosis or is showing increased aggressiveness. You should be able to help there too.
