A reported rise in mental illness in the Netherlands

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/a-reported-rise-in-mental-illness-in-the-netherlands/a-18605998

In the Netherlands there seems to have been a rapid rise in incidents involving "mentally confused" people. The reported number of such incidents rose from 53,000 in 2013 to 60,000 last year and the Dutch are asking why.

A reported rise in mental illness in the Netherlands
Suzanna Koster
24.07.2015

A phone rings and community psychiatric nurse Theo Eberson speeds to his car. The police want him to assess the mental health of someone they've just apprehended. When Eberson arrives at the police station, Brigadier Mike de Wit explains that his team has brought in an English-speaking man who banged on doors in the stairwell of an apartment block and then got into a fight with an angry resident who asked him to leave.

"We want to see if there's anything we can do for him," de Wit says. "And, if there's really nothing we can do, we have to put him back on the street."

De Wit unlocks the door of the cell and lets Eberson in. Eberson explains that he comes from the community health department and that he'd just like to talk to the man. But the man barely responds. He's lying on a bench in the cell, shivering and has difficulties keeping his eyes open.

Cases on the rise

Eberson tells the man that he's going to call an ambulance to take him to the emergency ward at the hospital. De Wit is used to this routine. He says he has seen a rise in the number of people causing public disturbances in recent years.