A cardinal objective of the v. Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel is to enable persons with disabilities to live a contented and successful life with respect and dignity. We foster and support their independence so that they can arrange their own lives themselves as far as possible, and acquire the opportunity to participate in the community.

Support and assistance is given to persons where physical and mental disabilities converge to a very different extent with multiple disabilities. The main factor for Bethel in providing its services is that the persons themselves decide how and where they want to live. Bethel has developed a broad range of residential and out-patient services to make this possible. The spectrum ranges from individual apartments to groups sharing apartments and from basic care and organizing social contacts to nursing, medical and psychotherapeutic aids.

One special concern at Bethel is to develop new forms of assistance wherever there are gaps in the provision of care. This is the only way for individuals to continue to live near their families and friends also when they need support. Our residential homes and residential groups are centrally located in established communities and municipal districts. Shops, doctors’ surgeries and/or bus stops are easily accessible, and residents can meet other inhabitants on the street, at church or at the barber shop or beauty parlor. Life with a higher degree of normality and independence consequently becomes possible for persons with disabilities.

Bethel’s Assistance for Disabled Persons supports individuals in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Berlin and Brandenburg.