mental health

A 41-year-old woman from Nijkerk and her 39-year-old husband disappeared from their home in Blerick in Limburg last week Monday. Their four children, aged 17, 15, 12 and 9, were taken in by the Child Protection Board. Missing couple Andrea and Marcel suffer from a serious form of religious insanity and have been preparing for the "end of the world" for some time", Marcel's sister said to De Limburger.

The police and Andrea's sister confirmed the disappearance, according to the newspaper. 

Patients from the Fivoor psychiatric clinic in Den Dolder will soon no longer be able to walk through a residential neighborhood to the town center and train station. The municipality of Zeist, which covers Den Dolder, is going to install a two meters high gate to keep patients out of the Duivenhorst neighborhood, the municipality said in a letter to local residents, AD reports.

Last year a total of 1,829 people in the Netherlands took their own life, a decrease of nearly five percent compared to the 1,917 people who died by suicide in 2017, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday.

Of the people who died by suicide last year, 1,176 were men and 653 were women. The number of men ending their own lives has been around twice as high as that of women for years, according to the stats office. However, the number of suicides among men decreased by 10 percent last year, while the number among women increased slightly.

A 42-year-old man from Bodegraven suspected of stabbing his 35-year-old wife to death told the court on Monday that he thought she had become "a vampire with three colors in her eyes" and that "the devil was there" when he killed her. The Public Prosecutor demanded mandatory institutionalized psychiatric treatment against the Ljubisa O., the Telegraaf reports.

There are a multitude of pro-anorexia sites where girls with the eating disorder can exchange tips to lose weight. These sites often also include 'coaches', who guide girls and even scold or punish them if they don't do as told. These 'pro-ana-coaches' are often men who deliberately seek out girls with eating disorders to get nude photos or even sex from them, according to the first results of a Dutch study into these coaches, NOS reports.

Mental health institution GGZ Eindhoven is being prosecuted for the death of a 29-year-old patient in 2013. The institution is being charged with negligence. This is the first time in the Netherlands that a health institution has to account for the death of a patient in court, Omroep Brabant reports.

The number of teenagers committing suicide in the Netherlands is increasing alarmingly. Last year the number teens who died by suicide nearly doubled, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday.

In total 1,917 people committed suicide in the Netherlands last year, 23 more than in 2016. The number of teens between the ages of 10 and 20 that died by suicide increased from 48 in 2016 to 81 last year. 

National Police Chief Erik Akerboom wants a mental health worker available in every neighborhood in the Netherlands. The police increasingly have to respond to emergency situations involving people with mental health problems, and this can be avoided if they get the help they need before things get out of hand, he said in an interview with newspaper AD.

A massive 31 percent of people who receive welfare benefits in the Netherlands are also receiving psychological treatment, according to a study by Statistics Netherlands and Harvard University. Among people who work or go to school, 10 percent undergo psychological treatment, NOS reports.

The Dutch are generally very satisfied with their lives. When asked to score their lives out of ten, on average Dutch gave a score of 7.6 in 2016, Statistics Netherlands revealed on Wednesday. That is slightly higher than the average 7.5 of 2015. 

Netherlands residents gave their daily activities a score of 7.3, compared to 7.2 in 2015. And their social life got a score of 7.6. Physical health scored somewhat lower at 7.0, the same as in 2015. And psychiatric health scored higher at 7.8, stable for the past four years.

The lower house of Dutch parliament is against a measure proposed by Health Minister Edith Schippers (VVD) to force disturbed persons to be admitted for observation if needed, government party PvdA confirmed to NU.nl.

"Vulnerable people with mental illness can better be helped by giving them the proper care sooner, so that the violent measure of forced admission can be prevented", PvdA parliamentarian Lea Bouwmeester said to the newspaper. "That should really be first to order, before state coercion is used."