JED MAYER ADDICTION AID CENTER VIENNA, an interview with Mona Deutsch

By Una Glatz, 5th edition of The Stand, Spring 2025

The commute to and from CEU might have led some of us along the 6 tram route. It trots at a tiresomely steady pace along Quellenstraße, until it finally snails its way onto the city’s Gürtel. Some may have noticed a subtle difference in the passengers who occasionally ride this very busy tram route. As it lingers along its predefined tram tracks on the Gürtel, you might find yourself confronted with the realities of class disparity more than in most other Viennese modes of transport.

This disparity often manifests through the unmistakable glare of intoxication that lingers around some passengers traveling mostly between Matzleinsdorferplatz and Gumpendorferstraße. Once you ride all the way to Gumpendorferstraße and decide to exit the tram, this confrontation with Vienna’s reality reaches its peak. The scene that spreads out in front of you seems to hold a distinct impression of separateness—an invisible boundary between the determined walk of busy commuters and the drunk bodies that simply exist in the liminality of the station that day. Their faces reflect years of violence and addiction. Young and old gather here to find solidarity and spend their days much like we do—meeting friends and discussing our current dilemmas.

From what I have gathered from brief anecdotes during my own commute, the topics of discussion are, surprisingly, not too different from those we might share with friends on a daily basis: the sharing of good recommendations for a friendly and cheap bar (or drug), a comforting hug, or the reevaluation of past arguments with family members. The only variable starkly separating us on our commute is the reality of our daily experiences—theirs shaped by their entrapment to addiction, and ours by the privileged duty to our studies.

However, such scenes are rare in Vienna—a city that takes global pride in its healthcare and social security safety nets. The crowd of swaying, nonconforming figures stands out like a sore, struggling thumb against the romanticized backdrop of the Gumpendorferstraße station’s Jugendstil facades. How have these people slipped through Vienna’s cracks and ended up concentrated at this otherwise unremarkable U6 station? Why have these crowds formed specifically here? Who is catching the people who have fallen through Vienna’s safety nets due to their addiction?

The large yellow and green Neubau-style house across the street from the Gumpendorferstraße station offers a clue. This large, unassuming building is one of the only daily public safety nets for people living with addiction. The aid work that the Jedmayer Suchthilfe Center provides comes in the form of emergency sleeping accommodations, daily harm-reduction services, and the possibility of consultation sessions.

I met with Mona Deutsch from the consultation department of the Jedmayer Suchthilfe Center to gain an introductory insight into this unassuming, almost invisible, but remarkable institution. I wanted to learn more about the aid work that goes unnoticed—even when some of us pass by it daily on our commutes.

The Stand: Could you please briefly introduce yourself and describe your role at the Jedmayer Addiction Help Center Vienna?

Mona Deutsch: My name is Mona Deutsch. I am a specialist assistant in the area 2 BVW – counseling, support, and housing. This includes a few different facilities of the Suchthilfe Wien institutions, and I provide specialist social-work assistance for these facilities.

The Stand: Could you please summarize the main mission of the center in three sentences?

MD: Phew, in three sentences—I’ll try. The main mission is to ensure the survival of our clients, to enable them to shape or regain control of their own lives. We try to support them in that process, wherever possible.

The Stand: To get a better understanding of your specific—or also Austria’s—addiction treatment philosophy: to what extent does your center believe in the harm reduction philosophy, and how is this implemented in practice?

MD: We have an outpatient clinic where opioid-agonist therapy is carried out, i.e. what used to be called substitution therapy. Medication is dispensed to people who consume illegal opioids, allowing them to receive a controlled substitute instead. Therefore, harm reduction is a huge issue for us.

The main service that focuses on this is, of course, our syringe exchange facilities. That means you can swap needles, pumps, and boiling containers. Furthermore, we also have regular safe-use training sessions with clients, where we simply sit down together (twice a month or so) to talk about how the user can use safely. There are a lot of things that you just have to be aware of. I mean, the classic is, of course, “I don’t use someone else’s needle.” But there are still a lot of little things that you might not know and need to be aware of—so that’s why we offer training courses like this, for example.

The Stand: These training courses sound very interesting. What is your strategy in announcing the fact that these trainings exist, and how do you communicate it directly to the clients who might need it so that it can be implemented and used effectively?

MD: We have a day center downstairs where we simply advertise when clients stay there during the day. In other words, we approach people directly. Of course, we also have people who only come to the syringe exchange and don’t necessarily want to use the day center or our extra aid facilities—which is something we cannot decide for them. However, we also approach people there by putting up posters in both the syringe exchange and the day center. So I would say these are the main ways in which we reach people.

The Stand: I also saw downstairs when I walked into the main entrance that there is no needle exchange available during the day. Why is that the case?

MD: That’s only the case at the main entrance during the day. The main entrance is our nighttime syringe exchange, and the other entrance is where we have the daytime syringe exchange. You can exchange syringes with us around the clock, 365 days a year. There are no closing times.

The Stand: How are new approaches or methods developed for your center? Are they developed in-house or in collaboration? Are certain methods possibly dictated by external factors?

MD: In principle, the larger Jedmayer Suchthilfe Wien Center is a subsidiary of the larger Sucht- und Drogenkoordination Wien institution. Of course, there are guidelines as to how we have to work, but I would generally say that when it comes to new approaches and so on, we are also very well connected through our network of partner organizations—also internationally. This means that we attend a wide variety of training courses and specialist conferences, where we exchange ideas with other people from different countries or even just other federal states, in order to always maintain our state-of-the-art treatments.

The Stand: Your supply of methadone would be a well-known type of harm reduction method. However, it is often controversial. Are there certain legal hurdles? And furthermore, in your opinion, is this harm reduction offer sufficient, or would other or new approaches be needed?

MD: I can’t really say exactly what the legal hurdles were in the past. In any case, these programs have been around for a long time now. There are also different substitutes available—not just methadone, but also more specific medications. This is something that we have definitely been exploring more since 2023, by implementing a new pilot study that explores alternatives to the classic methadone therapy.

This study specifically looks into intravenous opioid-agonist therapy. This means that clients can receive medication from us and then consume it safely intravenously in a secure room and setting. These are examples where we are hoping to find new approaches—although, of course, we can’t yet say exactly what the outcome will be. But it’s definitely a new and promising direction.

The Stand: How do you work together with other organizations, medical facilities, or authorities within your treatment plans?

MD: Of course, there are different addiction support facilities, and we are all very well networked with each other, which helps greatly. I think Jedmayer itself is generally well connected because it’s a particularly large center and because many people know it. We also make sure that both people from the management and people from the grassroots base take part in networking meetings.

We work together with various stakeholders and other facilities, as well as with local residents. We have a complaints and relatives management system, where nearby residents can contact us and we can work with their feedback.

The Stand: Now let’s move on to the political side: what additional resources or new political measures would be most useful to your center’s work?

MD: Of course, it would always be good to have more resources—be it personnel, financial, or otherwise. I can’t speak for the whole of Suchthilfe Wien, because we are only a small part of it—one of the biggest parts, actually—but still just one area. That’s why I can’t say exactly what Jedmayer could really use differently from other facilities.

The Stand: Yes, I see. Especially since it currently seems to be working very well, as far as I know. You already manage to offer so many varying services, which do a great job for people in need.

MD: Yes, there are many offers, and we are always looking to develop new ones. First of all, to remain state of the art, but also to adapt to the changing “target group”—which may sound a bit wrong in its wording, but of course, the “target group” of our clients is constantly changing. It’s no longer the same as it was in the 1990s, which is, of course, also related to the substances that are consumed. We are always looking to adapt our offers accordingly.

The Stand: Can you foresee in any way how the new coalition government might affect your work in the future—negatively or positively?

MD: I really can’t answer that at all. I can’t say how the government will influence things for now. Of course, I have my own thoughts about whether things will get better or worse, but I can’t really say how it will affect us directly.

The Stand: Now to a more personal question—Is there a particular success story or experience that has stuck in your mind as definitive to your work?

MD: I think defining “success” is always difficult in a job like this, because you have to be able to personally define success for yourself somehow. For some people, it would be a success if they see that a client has finally received an apartment after being homeless for a long time. Others might say it’s a success if a client simply turns up for their appointments at the Jedmayer Center.

There really isn’t such a thing as a single “success story,” especially not one that I would particularly remember as definitive for myself. I’m sure there were many wonderful moments when I was still working directly at the base level that I’ll always remember—for example, the gratitude we often felt from our clients. But I still think it’s quite difficult to define a success story per se. There have been many nice moments where we’ve all been able to have fun together and feel genuine gratitude that makes our work fulfilling. I think those are the simple and nice things that I remember most.

The Stand: And last but not least—do you have any information for us on how and where students could help out?

MD: Actually, we only have professionally trained social workers at the Jedmayer Center offices and at its base. We don’t currently have any external people helping us out. However, what can be a pleasant small help—depending on whether our stock is good at the moment or not—are clothing donations.

I have to note, though, that it’s important to call us in advance to ask about the current status of our clothing stock or our emergency clothing distribution. Overall, I think that’s the best way to help for now. Most importantly, though, I think the biggest help is to speak up whenever you overhear people complaining about our clients and their struggles. We hope that people will actively counter unfair stigmatization and the reproduction of social outcasting.

The Stand: Then, that was my last question. Thank you very much for your time—we really appreciate it.