Activity Report Berlin/Brandenburg Regional Association 2021/2022

There are 876 members in Berlin and 440 in Brandenburg, plus 7 SHGs in Berlin and 4 in Brandenburg. We are pleased to have been able to maintain our groups and increase membership despite the pandemic.

In winter 2021, we held a digital collaboration event as a Physician Patient Seminar with Charité, Benjamin Franklin Campus.

With the team of the regional association we discussed the activities of the current year at the annual meeting. We met in the Spreewald in Brandenburg in the fall of 2021, as one of our state association team members is from southern Brandenburg, and in Berlin in the spring of 2022.

In addition, some digital meetings of the national association took place. We maintain contact with the groups by telephone and video conferencing. Some of the groups meet outside, in pubs or digitally. Virtually no one meets on the previous premises of the self-help centers.

We are in contact with the group leaders and offer support for new group foundings. We also provide vacation substitutions for group leaders upon request. We help with the handover of the groups to a new leader, e.g. if someone wants to hand over the group leadership due to age reasons.

We offered supervision for our group leaders in the self-help groups and for the state association team.

We advise members via the advice line and by mail. Many requests have been made. There was also a lot of inquiry about where the nearest support groups are that meet. The digital offering was also surveyed.

We get involved in health policy work at the state and federal level. In detail, we are represented on the board of the State Association of Self-Help in Berlin, on the Joint Federal Committee, on the licensing committees for physicians and psychotherapists of the State of Berlin and on the board of directors of the Medical Service Berlin-Brandenburg and on the board of directors of the BAG Selbsthilfe and on the Focus Group Health for the preparation of the Berlin Parliament for the Disabled.

Sonja Arens was in front of the camera as a testimonial for a BAG campaign on patient advocacy and for the 40th anniversary of the DCCV.

We advise the SHGs in the field of inflammatory bowel disease in Berlin and Brandenburg.

We said goodbye to our long-time state representative Kerstin Gläser in a small circle.

The state representatives and the team of the state association have participated in training meetings of the federal association.

The state association has prepared and recorded content for further episodes of the podcast “Crohn’s, Colitis & Co – the DCCV Podcast” and published them.

There were first digital information meetings with other activists to create and/or contribute to the podcast.

We submit applications for funding within the framework of § 20 SGB V and manage the state association account.

Few consultations and lectures could be held in the Reha Klinik am See in Rüdersdorf.

Signed: The regional representatives of the Berlin/Brandenburg regional association, Sonja Arens and Marcus Hetschel