Apart from the EUTB, the kombabb Kompetenzzentrum NRW (Competence Center in North Rhine-Westphalia) likewise takes advantage of the premise and provides professional counseling and information for students with (non-) visible disabilities and / or chronic illness. Since July 2019, the support service has been expanded to students with autism or those on the autism spectrum. KoKoBe Bonn Rhein Sieg is funded by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, LVR (English: Regional Authority Rhineland) and is another service for people with disabilities that offers peer counseling. Counselors have experience with physical disabilities, hearing and visual impairments, epilepsy or diseases such as cancer and depression.
All support services share one commonality: the counseling is free of charge though it should be noted that the goal is less about offering concrete advice, but more about helping people help themselves. Having said that, this makes working as a peer counselor somewhat difficult. After all, counselors must be able to reflect on their own circumstances and the respective difficulties this poses in everyday life, and at the same time - despite all the familiarity and desire to help – they must also be able to keep a calm, caring attitude while maintaining professional boundaries with the person seeking guidance. There is always an inherent risk of identifying too closely with the other person’s situation.
The example of "Peers im Krankenhaus" (English: Hospital Peers) or PiK shows the importance of peer counseling. An amputation turns the lives of victims upside down overnight. And although patients get immediate support from nurses, physicians, physiotherapists, and orthopedic technicians, the latter are not able to answer all the questions that arise from this unique situation. Theresa T. can attest to this. In our article Peer Counseling in hospitals: Empowering amputees, she talks about her worries and feelings after "taking her first steps" with the new prosthetic limb. "I had a feeling of being alone despite the emotional support of my family and friends." Enter Dagmar Marth who works as a peer counselor at Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb). In countless conversations, Marth helped the 22-year-old, while the latter was fitted in-house for her prosthetic device. Among other things, Marth shared practical tips for buying shoes, and in doing so, was able to encourage the student along the way. "What a blessing it was to find someone to talk to about the pain, the problems, my fears and hopes and knowing we shared a similar experience. I felt so understood. She encouraged me and I lost my fear of new things and changes." And by encouraging others and offering the kind of support she wished she could have had back when she first embarked on this long journey, the peer counselor’s commitment also benefits and empowers her on a very personal level.
It’s clear that if this technique is implemented correctly, everybody wins in the end. People with disabilities are given the right tools to lead a self-determined life and subsequently take this concept into their communities and society at large. This empowerment (hopefully) promotes disability inclusion, warranting that other requests by the UN CRPD will finally be fulfilled and the mantra "Nothing about us without us" will at long last become an integral part of society.