Task force takes on urban mental health issues

A team from the Dutch national platform of mental healthcare, the GGZ, has set up a task force to help municipalities make sure that people with serious mental health problems get the help they need. This task force launched earlier this week and is paid for by the Ministry of Public Health. "There is care, but many organizations do not look over their own fence, which means that too often their offer does not correspond to the individual", Ineke Smidt, the face of the task force, said to broadcaster NOS. "Many vulnerable people fall through the cracks. The task force will ensure that psychiatric patients' client organizations and municipalities work better together. According to Smidt, a former alderman in Almere and director of the Federation of Shelters, municipalities often do not realize what demands go together with the purchase of guidance, day care and assisted living. The team will work along with municipalities, regional and local customer organizations and family organization to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. The team will visit twenty so-called central-municipalities - municipalities that buy care for an entire region - over the next two years.