6 TRENDS

Text: Nienke Deuss

Margreet Zomerdijk, GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord

Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

TRENDS 7

TRENDSETTER IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE

In the Netherlands, GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord is considered one of the leaders when it comes to applying IT solutions to mental health care. The main office introduced the New World of Work in 2010 and is active in the e-Mental Health field. IT is also important within the internal service departments: IT services, Facilities, Finance and HR work together in TOPdesk.

nternet and IT are becoming steadily more important for services within the mental health care industry. Not only

care and cater to patients specific wishes. EMRs (electronic medical records) make IT essential for mental health care, explains Margreet Zomerdijk, TOPdesk application manager at GGZ NHN. Our care is now tailored to the patients specific

with internet therapy, which offers chat and video contact. That would be more effective than a central point offering only regular methods. Of course, a lot depends on the treatment method and the specific situation, but these additional options

because they increase patient support options: the Dutch mental health sector is soon going to be subjected to substantial funding cuts, and is also expected to face staff shortages. More efficient methods are needed to safeguard the quality of care. GGZ NHN is aware of this and is investing in innovative IT solutions for both patient support and internal services accordingly.

FOR US, COLLABORATION BETWEEN FACILITIES AND IT IS ONLY LOGICAL!

Margreet Zomerdijk - GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord

e-Mental Health
Within the mental health care sector, the trend to use IT resources to help support patients is known as e-Mental Health. IT and internet resources are used to simplify wishes. For instance, the patient could need immediate support. In that case, they could have access to that support really improve the quality of care. GGZ NHN is starting to specialize in remote patient support. They have >>

8 TRENDS

patients that are able to live virtually independently with the help of digital support from Telezorg, or Telecare. Telecare involves patients being able to contact aid workers via a touch screen in their home. Margreet: This makes our care assistance straightforward and fast, and available twenty-four hours a day. The patients can request assistance when they need it. This project, Home 2.0, is being extended to our whole region in 2011 and 2012.

to and use, rooms where patients are treated, designated quiet spaces, a library and a gorgeous high-tech conference room. I also give TOPdesk courses there, says Margreet proudly. If someone has a problem, I can put their monitor on the presentation screen and show the whole group how to resolve it.

and that is why this collaboration is only the next logical step for us. This helps the various processes fit together better. Also, we were placed in the same building last January, which means we have been working together more than ever before.

Easy for HR to join in

The HR department also started using

Central working space

No one in the building has a set work space; however, certain spaces are meant for specific activities. The help desk

TOPdesk this year. And not just to handle incidents, explains Margreet. The HR department also needed a better overview of their own workload. Nurses are required to account for the hours they spend working, and it only makes sense to expect this from other departments as well. TOPdesk enables us to keep track of all this, and with a few clicks I can create and print a report on it. A lot has changed in the central services department over the past year. Margreet tells us that the transition to a single TOPdesk application and the collaboration with HR went very smoothly. It was a lot better than I expected, especially considering that in a short time, we implemented the New World of Work,

The New World of Work

GGZ NHN is also innovative when it comes to internal organization: two of their buildings have now been furnished according to the New World of Work. They have been using their main offices since 2010. It had to house both the aid workers and the central services department, and as such, the buildings design had to stimulate flexibility, openness and collaboration. This is obvious when one looks at the building: each space has its

agents sit together in the phone space, where they support about two thousand employees in over thirty branches. This is where all the incidents are processed, from broken printers and washing machines to questions about pension agreements, explains Margreet. You have to sit together if you want to confer. A few years ago, the IT and Facilities departments worked in different TOPdesk environments. We noticed that seeing

E-MENTAL HEALTH MAKES CARE SIMPLE AND FAST, AND AVAILABLE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY
Margreet Zomerdijk - GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord

we moved, and all departments started working together in a single application. Picking up working with TOPdesk in a single week was really quite fast!

own theme, such as beach, heath or forest, and has been furnished to suit various working methods. The new interior also saves the GGZ main office a considerable amount of money. Although there are as many employees as before, they now require 30% less space. There are computers anyone can log in

each others data was really useful, says Margreet, as it allowed you to have all the details when an incident was logged. That is why we all started using a single TOPdesk together when we upgraded from Professional to Enterprise last year. Facilities and Automation have very similar processes for handling incidents,