He worked in a refugee camp on Lesbos, in Tanzania, Suriname and in the emergency room in a Dutch hospital. Meanwhile, Constant Hofland, a young thirty-something, is a psychiatrist in training.
During the consultation hours, we deal with a wide variety of people, each with their own story. In some cases the medical help is very important, but most of them mainly need a home and a passport. They also often struggle with mental issues. For example, once a Portuguese boy came to the consultation. I have two problems, he said. The first problem is that I fall for men. And the second is that I have made out with a man and am afraid I have AIDS. About the latter, we were able to reassure him. For the fact that he has trouble with his sexual orientation, we referred him to social work.
Similarly, we see many transgender people. They don’t need medical help so much as they need contacts with the right people. We make a round of calls, for example with the GGD, the Transpoli and Safe Harbor, which works to help people struggling with their identity.
Sincere attention
Most of the patients who come to Kruispost work six days a week. They have children who may or may not live in The Netherlands. It happens that they even support an entire family, even though they live in their home country. It happens more than once that these people have not seen their own children for ten years. And that while living in a society that doesn’t want to know anything about them.
That’s why we at least try to make sure that for once people don’t feel like a blind spot, because that’s what they are in The Netherlands. They don’t exist. One by one, they work hard, resulting in complaints of overwork. Taking rest would be the advice, but that is not an option for them.
People often first see which way the cat jumps when they first come to Kruispost. It is such a mixed target group that we are challenged each time to make contact differently. After a few times, they get used to it. Sometimes they benefit from a regular GP to provide them with continuous care, but it is not uncommon that they want to leave Kruispost. Here they feel at home and seen. They get genuine attention.
Occasionally, patients share the most horrific stories. The downside to hearing about past trauma is that we often don’t have the people on hand to provide acute care. Therefore, we don’t ask too much about it if they don’t tell us about it themselves. Sometimes covering is better than opening something up. As a person with a social security number, it is already impossible to get into the mental health system, let alone if there is no health insurance to pay the bill. Sometimes it’s better to leave the wound closed, no matter how unpleasant.
This is how we all make the best of it. The stories sound like fanfares of misery, but also humor, resilience and perspective. They often possess a lot of humor, can laugh about it and normalize it. The versatility and contact with the patients are energizing. It is an enormously powerful group of people, each with their own story. They have an incredibly hard time in a place where no one seems to understand them, and they keep running into barriers. It takes courage for them to be vulnerable with us. It is greatly satisfying to help them on their way in the jungle that The Netherlands is for them.
