The number of reports of confused people in public has risen in many municipalities, but not in Waalre. Thanks to its own approach, only 35 reports came in last year. A decrease of more than 60 per cent compared to 2023. Waalre wants to share that approach with the rest of the Netherlands. “The secret is that we work closely together”.
Those words are from Mayor Marcel Oosterveer. He is at the helm of the village under the smoke of Eindhoven. Together with, among others, the police, the process director, district health officers and housing administrators, they try to curb the nuisance of confused people in public in a different way. Not by punishing, but by helping people get their lives back on track.
And it goes like this. “People who make a report to the police or municipality and say: ‘We have someone walking here who shows confused behaviour’. And then we make sure we call GGZ (Gemeenschappelijke Gezondheidsdienst, mental health service). Within 24 hours, these people are with the confused person. We inform the neighbourhood and the people concerned are helped”, Oosterveer said.
Personally tailored
Informing the neighbourhood prevents residents from making multiple reports about the same person. As a result, the Municipality of Waalre has far fewer reports than similar-sized villages such as Nuenen (168) and Oirschot (66). Those municipalities see an increase of 127 and 32 per cent respectively. A trend visible throughout the country. Causes include cuts in mental health care and long waiting lists.
In Waalre, help is arranged for confused people as soon as possible. In concrete terms, this means that they receive help that is personally tailored to them. For example, an admission to a rehabilitation clinic or an investigation into how the mental symptoms originate. This is because the problems of confused people vary in Waalre. “They include people with drug-related problems, drinking problems or, for example, people who have had a car accident and therefore have a brain abnormality”.
Copy
So it requires customisation and short lines of communication between the parties involved. According to the Mayor, other municipalities would do well to follow the Waalre approach. “I try to convince other municipalities that this approach works. And that it costs less in the end”.
“It is human work and not everything can be copied. That means you have to completely adapt your organisation to this way of working. It means getting to the front of the line and not waiting for things to escalate”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
