Today, my mother’s 88th birthday, was my first day of the embed with the psychiatric emergency services in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The emergency services are specialized in so-called involuntary treatment; patients who refuse treatment but are considered a threat to themselves, to others, or to the safety of the public in general, can be forced to treatment for a period of three weeks.
The mayor usually follows the advice of the psychiatrist and a judge checks a few days later if the psychiatrist made a sound decision.
In a way the psychiatric emergency services reminded me of the army, both are busy winning hearts and minds, both have a hard time distinguishing between friends and enemies. But the self-awareness of the psychiatrist appears to be bigger. As one of them said: “The caregiver may have narcissistic problems. The moment a patient refuses his help he gets upset.”