Dozens of mental health clinics provide “alarmingly” bad care
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Multiple mental health institutions provide “alarmingly bad” care when it comes to autonomy-promoting treatments, the Mind foundation reported after collecting complaints for three months. The foundation received 147 reports about 25 mental health institutions describing care as “horrible and dehumanizing,” “frightening and lonely,” and “the worst time of my life,” among other things, AD reports.
Mind held a reporting campaign between July 15 and September 15 after several newspapers reported about abuses in the CIB institutions in The Hague. The reports concern the experiences of clients involved in autonomy-promoting treatments and their loved ones. The idea of these treatments is that patients learn to break their negative behavior and become more responsible and able to function themselves.
“Most experiences of clients and relatives are not just negative, but extremely negative,” Mind wrote in the report. Clients feel abandoned in times of crisis and psychological distress and loved ones feel powerless and kept at a distance.
The reports describe the autonomy-promoting policy as “cold, distant, and heartless,” while clients indicate that they need warmth, attention, and connection with others.
Most of the reports Mind received concerned recent treatments. 75 reports were about 2024 and 2023, 29 were about the period 2020-2022, and 19 power about 2019.
The mental health foundation stressed that the reports are not representative. People mainly called in with negative experiences. But the outcome must be taken “very seriously,” Mind said.
“The number of negative experiences is considerable. They come from institutions spread across the country. The nature of the reports is often particularly serious and they concern clients with a high risk of self-harm or suicide.”
Mind recommended that the mental healthcare authority and institutions involved reflect on and reconsider the autonomy-promoting policy. Staff need to be better trained and supervised, and more priority must be given to the care of clients with chronic suicidal tendencies.
