[Laws for mandatory mental health care in the Netherlands]

From 2020, the Compulsory Mental Healthcare Act (Wvggz) and the Care and Coercion Act (Wzd) apply in the Netherlands to involuntary care, the Wvggz for patients with psychiatric disorders and the Wzd for patients with cognitive disturbances or intellectual impairment. An initial evaluation of the laws has now taken place in two phases, with consultation of all parties involved in the implementation.

To provide an overview of the backgrounds, experiences and bottlenecks, partly based on the results of the first legal evaluation.

Discussion of relevant literature, including legal texts, case law and legal evaluation.

The evaluation showed that the Wvggz is too complex with a large administrative burden, e.g. information obligation with too many letters to the patient, insufficient effect of outpatient mandatory care for patients who resist mandatory medication, hardly any use of the own Plan of Action, insufficient attention to family, ambiguous assessment of incapacity, complicated complaints procedure, implementation problems when Wzd and Wvggz problems coincide, failure of municipalities to provide missing social services. In addition, a number of implementation and interpretation problems have come to light, on which case law has gradually emerged.

The identified bottlenecks will hopefully be resolved over time with legal improvements. All in all, with all the teething problems of the Wvggz and Wzd, the focus so far has mainly been on the correct interpretation of the laws and the practical implementation of mandatory care, but not enough on its prevention.