so far I have done good progress with this:

Consumer Credit Counseling Service. They will contact all of the creditors and take care of all of the payment arrangements.

It may be easier to declare bankruptcy. Now a days it may be easier to recover from doing so than to go through the Credit Services.

As far as the service messing with your credit, yes, I heard that it does that. Be careful.

wow that’s rough. i used a debt consolidation company and they made my credit worse, but my debt was under eight thousand dollars, so for someone in such dire circumstances as your friend it might be worth it to use one. i went with clarion. my credit was worse for using their services, but they negotiated with the banks and were honest about the payments.