Self-help through the Internet

“Intakt”: that’s the name of the Internet forum of the Catholic League for Families (Fdk) of the diocese of Würzburg in Bavaria, in operation now for two years. The project, launched throughout Bavaria in 2004, has proved a big success: last month, over 61,000 internet users visited and used the forum for the parents of disabled children on the website www.intakt.info. “The number of visitors has constantly grown from the initial 17,200 to the present number”, says ARTUR EISENACHER , head of Fdk. It’s also a result that guarantees the survival of the project: “The Bavarian Ministry of Finance has already granted a further funding to Intakt up till 31 December 2008”, announced Eisenacher. The project is also financially supported by the diocese of Würzburg. WHAT IS “INTAKT”? Intakt is a project aimed at realising a network of existing resources and promoting communication between parents. It unites families through the Internet, pooling their knowledge and strengthening them in their role as parents of children with disabilities. Those involved are thus enabled to offer mutual counselling and encouragement, and when necessary draw on professional assistance”, explains the homepage of the website. “The idea for this easily accessible facility was devised by the workgroup “Disabled Families” of the Catholic League for Families of the diocese of Würzburg, which helps run the project”. The workgroup was set up in 1998 and formed the starting point of the activity. “Our Internet forum aims to provide a clearing house for all questions, experiences and replies of the parents concerned and to permit an exchange of experiences. Church-run institutes of formation, associations, agencies, institutions and structures, as well as specialists in activities for the disabled, are also invited to contribute their expertise. All these bodies can transmit their know-how to form an specialized forum and a community of solidarity for parents with disabled children”. But apart from the forum, the website contains any kind of information useful for anyone having to cope with the reality of bringing up a disabled child: from laws on employment and social security, to addresses of suitably equipped kindergartens and nursery schools in the territory, to doctors specialised in the sector. The portal also contains a database of addresses of associations for the disabled, counselling centres, self-help groups, and so on, for a total of some 5,000 data records, regularly updated. THE FORUMS . Originally limited to Lower Franconia, the project was extended to the whole Land of Bavaria three years ago, with the support of the Ministry for the Family. This entailed the opening of a forum for each Bavarian district. “In this way we can now realize, throughout Bavaria, the principle of so-called ‘Peer-Counselling’: those involved counsel other families since they have become themselves highly skilled experts in many aspects of disability”, explains Hildegard Metzger, honorary director of the project and member of the diocesan executive of FDK. “When parents don’t have the answers, recourse is had to professional advice”. The counselling is provided in three ways, as described by the project leader Holger Preiß: “the members of the project committee, experts in various fields of assistance to the disabled, reply to the questions posted on the website. I myself ask for a targeted contribution from experts, or reply myself to the mail. In some cases it may be necessary to cancel interventions in the forum, for instance if other participants are offended or if questionable therapies or drugs are propagated”.CHAT FOR PARENTS . Each Thursday and Sunday a chat line is activated for parents on the website; between five and fifteen users regularly participate in it. In 2006, on three different occasions, experts also took part in the chat, replying in real time to questions on such issues as “Pre-natal diagnosis and its consequences” and “The brothers/sisters of disabled children”. “Unfortunately”, points out Eisenacher, “disturbing episodes repeatedly take place during the chats for parents; in two cases denunciations were presented to the criminal police”. Despite that, the experience of chat has successfully been repeated for the brothers and sisters of disabled children. This particular chat was inaugurated in December 2005. “Similar offers for the families of the disabled are rare: there were no possibilities of exchanging experiences in chat in the whole of Germany”, says Eisenacher. “The chat has also given rise to a special homepage on the theme, as also the proposal of some users to raise the awareness of public opinion on their situation with the creation of a newsletter”.