Advice on the Line Records Significant Increase in Consultations on Violence

This is also evident in the topics that particularly occupied young people in 2025 and where the largest increases were recorded. The highest increase was in conversations about anxiety, with a plus of 29.5 percent compared to the previous year, followed by physical violence in the family (plus 19.2 percent) and psychological violence in the family (plus 16.9 percent). Counseling on the topic of suicidality increased by 13.2 percent.

2025: School Shooting and Trusted Flagger Status

Most inquiries to the emergency number 147, as in previous years, were about "information on psychosocial care," highlighting the high demand for support services like Rat auf Draht, followed by family problems. In third place is the topic of suicidality, followed by inquiries about friendship/peer group. "The psychological burdens on children and adolescents remain at a high level. However, it is positive to note that the general mood among young people has tended to improve. This is evident, among other things, in the fact that there are more counseling inquiries on classic teenage topics such as friendship, peer group, or lovesickness compared to the previous year," says Satke. The latter increased by around eight percent in 2025.

A part of the strong increase in counseling in the anxiety category was due to the school shooting in Graz. Here, Rat auf Draht was able to quickly and easily provide help and support in this absolute crisis situation. Thus, counseling sessions increased by over 15 percent to 1,824 conversations from June 10 to 22, 2025, compared to the same period the previous year. In many of these conversations, the shooting was a topic. "Callers sought advice on how best to deal with their fear and were very concerned that something like this could also happen at their school. The handling of the flood of information and images spread on social media, as well as fake news, was also discussed. Several callers needed support to process the experiences and deal with their shock and grief. Of course, it was also a very stressful time for our team, but we are glad and proud to have helped so many young people," says Satke. Based on the insights from this challenging situation, a new counseling offer was launched together with the Ministry of Education: the "Chateria Speciale," a digital chat offer specifically on the topic of mental health.

Additionally, since 2025, Rat auf Draht is also a Trusted Flagger. This means that children and adolescents can report illegal content on online platforms directly via the Rat auf Draht website, which must then be prioritized by the respective services. The offer has already been well received with 157 inquiries since its inception.

Challenging Years for Parents and Counseling Centers

The year 2025 was no less challenging for parents, as shown by around 1,200 video chat consultations on elternseite.at, the counseling service for parents and caregivers from Rat auf Draht. The most common topics were parenting, puberty, and everyday demands. The largest increase, besides the areas of parenting and everyday demands, was in the topic of violence, which increased by over 34 percent. "In other words: Every other day, a parent of a child who has experienced bullying violence at school, psychological violence, or physical violence contacts us," says Satke.

Rat auf Draht also expects a high demand for counseling in the coming year: "Psychological burdens and mental health will continue to be very present. We also expect challenges in the area of digital media, including AI, to increase," says Satke. In addition, future fears, pressure to perform in school and training, as well as global crises, are likely to be topics again.

(APA/Red.)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.