Mental health in long-term care settings: The Dutch approach

Like many other countries in the world, the Netherlands faces the challenges of the rising numbers of frail elderly resulting in high rates of institutionalization. This paper gives an overview of the specific Dutch approach in long-term care settings with a focus on people with mental health problems like dementia, depression and a combination of physical and psychiatric problems. The Netherlands is the only country in the world with specially trained Elderly Care Physicians (ECP’s), which specialty has a long academic tradition and therefore has academic networks to establish an infrastructure for teaching purposes, but also for multicenter research and development of best practices. The paper further emphasizes on dementia care and different care concepts like emotion oriented care and snoezelen with their evidence of effectiveness and ends with care for people with depression.