After the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, psychotherapists in the region are expecting a surge in requests for help.
“The acute care is over and the transition to psychotherapeutic treatment is now beginning” said Sabine Ahrens-Eipper, vice-president of the East German Psychotherapists’ Chamber (OPK), to the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (Wednesday edition). “We expect a substantial demand.”
According to the state’s bereavement officer, Gabriele Theren, “around 1,000 people are currently known to be directly or indirectly affected by the attack.” Approximately 800 affected individuals have written to the bereavement officers of the federal and state governments with a support offer. “At least a quarter of the people will have treatment needs” said Ahrens-Eipper, a psychotherapist in practice in Halle. The list is not yet closed, as the hotline for those affected continues to receive calls.
“The attack has taken the ground from under our feet” explained Theren in a MZ inquiry. “The suffering caused on that day is deep. What we want is to be there for one another now.” Those affected should be helped with “all the strength and all the means at our disposal.” In the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market on December 20, six people were killed and almost 300 were injured.
Around 500 affected individuals have so far been treated in the psychosocial acute help at the University of Magdeburg. They reported of “persistent unease and tension in connection with sensory impressions from the event, such as the sounds of the car or the screams of the injured” said Florian Junne, director of the Magdeburg University Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy. “So, images of the event continue to appear in the inner eye.” In some cases, it’s about fears and avoidance. Affected individuals “avoid the neighborhood of the event or hardly go out of the house.”
According to the Saxon-Anhalt Kassenärztliche Vereinigung (KV), “treatment capacities have been created” to enable those affected to have a quick access to psychotherapeutic care. Five additional psychotherapists and a child and adolescent psychotherapist are available, in addition to the existing ones. Furthermore, therapists of the OPK are offering special appointments for the victims of the attack through the term service of the KV.