Oostvaarderskliniek therapist dismissed due to relationship with patient

NOS News•today, 3:57 PM

A therapist from a TBS clinic in Almere has been summarily dismissed due to a “non-professional relationship with a patient”, reports the Judicial Institutions Agency.

There were already suspicions about that relationship within the Oostvaarderskliniek, but there was no evidence, so immediate dismissal was not possible at first.

The employment contract with the therapist was therefore terminated in consultation via a settlement agreement. The person concerned is, among other things, entitled to wages for a certain period.

At the end of March, the management of the Oostvaarderskliniek received evidence that confirmed the relationship between the employee and the patient. That still led to summary dismissal.

Director Elles Tillema-van Loo of the TBS clinic in Almere states in a statement that relationships between employees and patients are never allowed because patients are “completely dependent on the staff in the clinic” in their actions.

“There is no place within the Oostvaarderskliniek for employees who do not adhere to this important and basic integrity rule,” says Tillema-van Loo.

In 2022, an independent investigation was launched into the Oostvaarderskliniek after several reports of abuses. An employee appeared to have forced a patient to perform sexual acts and a manager was suspended due to signals of inappropriate behavior against several employees.

An employee who had a sexual relationship with a TBS patient was also dismissed that year and an internship was stopped due to a relationship with a patient.

That study, the results of which were published at the beginning of this year, showed that clinic employees are insufficiently protected.

The researchers saw that employees tended to focus mainly on treating patients and therefore paid less attention to their own social safety. It also turned out that there is distrust between employees and managers and that some employees do not know the rules well or have different views on their interpretation.