"Communication rather than quarantine".mental health treatment in society

[Anchor]
In our society, patients with severe mental illness often think of ways to isolate themselves in treatment facilities.

But in the Netherlands, where the state directly manages mental illness, it helps to eventually return to society through communication with nature and people.

Reporter Kim Joo-young visited the scene.

[Reporter]
It is a 'healing farm' in Zboler, a small and medium-sized city in the Netherlands.

On the farm, people take care of pigs, ponies, alpacas, etc. or grow small crops, and children form groups and experience the farm.

[Esther Fern Gaffen / Depression, Volunteer: We don't get paid, but just helping the animals is rewarding enough for us]

However, most of the people who live here are mentally struggling, such as depression and anxiety.

By raising animals and communicating with nature, you can find a sense of stability, and through this, you can overcome mental difficulties.

[Esther Fun Gaffen / Depression, Volunteers: We focus on helping people who are currently unable to work or are in poor health.]

Of course, even in the Netherlands, people with severe mental illness create separate facilities and isolate them.

However, the way the facility is operated is very different from ours.

at this facility that houses 180 people who have committed crimes or are deemed likely to cause problems,
Patients
use a personal space where leisure items such as electronic game consoles can also be used, rather than a hospital room.

Treatment also values spontaneity and regularly meets with family members so that sociality is not lost.

[Felori Eremale / Mental Illness Treatment and Care Facility Legal Officer] Patients want to go back home and go back to society and live a normal life. That's a big motivation for voluntary treatment of patients.]

Rather than focusing only on separating from society, it plays a role in making social life free from problems through treatment and sending them back to society.

In fact, the rate of criminal recidivism at this facility is 18%, less than half of that of ordinary Dutch prisons.

[Halk Stulp / Professor of Social Work at Via University] So did the Netherlands. We're now trying to connect patients with society because they've been quite dependent. If that happens, it completely loses people's ability, and there's an element that makes people more sick.

As more and more people suffer from mental health problems in Korea, we need to think about new ways to respond.

I'm Kim Joo-young from Z-Bowler in the Netherlands.