Realizing legal protection for compulsory care by psychiatrists and nurses

Every day in the Netherlands, approximately 65 people are given a crisis measure or care order for compulsory care. Psychiatrists then temporarily decide on the lives of other people. Intervening with compulsory care has an enormous impact on the person in question. And of course it also has legal consequences. It is therefore important that care providers deal properly with the legal protection of their patients.

Legal protection goes beyond ticking off criteria and protocols or learning rules of conduct. It requires a complex balancing of different interests: providing good care, ensuring safety and respecting rights. And this in difficult situations where there are often strong emotions and resistance. What does it mean to realise good legal protection?

Research questions:

What is realizing legal protection in the context of compulsory care?
What do healthcare providers think they should do?
And how do they do that in practice?

These ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions provide insight into the working practice. The research is therefore exploratory; aimed at generating new knowledge about role perception and the ultimate interpretation given to realizing legal protection.

Realize working definition of legal protection in compulsory mental health care;
Mapping of situational factors that can influence role fulfillment in different situations – acute and non-acute;
Mapping of role fulfillment by psychiatrists and nurses.
Explaining the variation in role fulfillment.

"More insight into practice, the problems involved, possible practice adjustments and possible variants for additional or alternative arrangements are more than welcome"
Ton-Peter Widdershoven, Senior lawyer at the PVP Foundation

Literature review, observations, interviews and Q-methodology.

01 September 2021 - 30 December 2025

Further integration of the resulting knowledge regarding legal protection in the application of coercive measures fits within the existing HU- profile 'Safe Living Environment'. A new minor will also be developed that focuses on Integral Working on the themes Care, Law and Safety. The results of this research are also included in the further development of the ggz-triage training module within the Master's degree in Innovation in Care and Welfare.

Based on action research, systematic work will be done on the design of a good-practice portfolio for the professional field for realizing legal protection in situations of forced measures.