Nuisance caused by confused persons is on the rise in Eindhoven. Because the police cannot handle the thousands of reports alone, municipal health service workers (district-GGD’ers) are called in frequently.
In the city of Eindhoven alone, the police were called more than 3,000 times in 2023 because of the nuisance caused by a confused person. More than three times as many as ten years ago. Because the police cannot deal with all these calls by themselves, the district GGD is now successfully deployed. A 2021 pilot project is now running in all neighbourhoods in Eindhoven.
Immediate help
Earlier, the police were not satisfied with the handling of non-urgent reports. “They were postponed, but this sometimes caused people to be evicted unnecessarily, for example,” says Oud-Woensel neighbourhood police officer Chris van Roekel. The new approach saves him a lot of time. “Now we can call in the municipal health service (local GGD), who can immediately provide the necessary help.”
A bond of trust
The employees of the neighbourhood GGD have a very different approach than the police. That is somewhat more focused on the needs of the nuisance person. “We first want to create a bond of trust”, says employee Thierry Laurence. “Then people are more likely to accept the help.” Once the contact is established, the health service workers examine how the confused persons can be helped and provide the required actions.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Martijn
