Menu for those in uniform
Interview with project leader veterans care path Beijka Mensink
Beijka Mensink was project leader for the new care path for veterans at ARQ Centrum’45 from 2019 to 2021. For all patients in this care path she has developed modular treatment. Beijka now works as a psychotherapist at ARQ.
For years, Beijka has been a Veterans expert team leader at ARQ. In addition, she did the shortened clinical psychologist training. Beijka: “In the training I was given the opportunity to make a plan for how we could better help veterans and police officers who have been traumatised by their profession. Veterans in particular were in care for a long time and benefited less from our offer than we wanted. What helped with my assignment was that I am a veteran myself.”
"Would it make sense to form mixed treatment groups with veterans and police officers? That had been off-limits until then."
Puzzles
There were several puzzles to solve. “We struggled with the inflow of veterans: sometimes there were too many, sometimes too few. Colleagues were at risk of losing their job satisfaction. They found veterans to be a heavy target group because they often did not benefit from our offer. And we actually knew too little about what the target group wanted. One of the questions I wanted to clarify was: would it make sense to form mixed treatment groups with veterans and police officers? That had been off-limits until then.”
Giving different people a voice
“I gave my colleagues a voice through discussions in a project group with all disciplines that worked with veterans: from sociotherapist to psychiatrist, from social worker to psychologist. I gave the patients a voice in conversations with six veterans and six police officers who had been or were still being treated with us. I asked them: what do you find helpful, what can be left out of our treatment and what are you still missing? I combined the insights from the discussion rounds with our data on larger numbers of treatments and the results of these treatments (ROM).”
"What do you find helpful, what can be left out of our treatment and what are you still missing?"
Menu
“We have developed modular treatment for all patients in the ‘Profession and trauma’ care path at ARQ Centrum’45. Think of it as a menu with a starter, main course and dessert. As a starter, patients receive a warming up in a starting group. In five sessions they hear about the different treatment methods, an experience expert comes to talk and attention is paid to the impact of psychotrauma on a patient’s loved ones.
The main course for everyone is trauma treatment. There is a choice of once a week, three times a week or a week in the clinic. All kinds of methods can then be used: EMDR, imaginary exposure (IE), 3MDR, BEPP, NET. Therapies can take place now in mixed groups of veterans and police officers as well as one-on-one. For dessert, the translation to everyday life is discussed.”
Start and finish
“The modular treatment approach is better suited to people who are used to a tightly organised environment such as the army or the police. Previously, treatments with us never seemed ‘finished’. Veterans in particular needed a clear start and finish. What will I be doing? Is it in a group? If so, how big is that group? How long will I be in treatment? We have kept the modules as short as possible and you can also skip or repeat modules.
Veterans often participate in what you offer them as a practitioner, but at the same time they are not really there emotionally. Many veterans have been avoiding pain half their lives. That’s where they get stuck. Hopefully, with modular treatment, we will have a better answer to their post-traumatic stress symptoms.”