[Voluntary aids in psychiatry].

Lay helpers fill in in situations where the natural system of help-family and friends-can no longer cope or where professional help is also not able to offer adequate help. Since no representative studies on this group of people exist, we wanted to take stock of the current situation by conducting a questionnaire in Baden-Württemberg. We identified 891 lay helpers in psychiatric facilities, of which 330 (37%) took part in the survey. The results of the study point out that lay help is the domain of older women. Their main duties are to give support through conversation and leisure activities. Although many lay helpers have been active over a long period of time, most of them express a high level of satisfaction with their occupation. A higher level of satisfaction is shown among those lay helpers who receive a certain amount of professional support in their work.