Day treatment at PAAZ (Psychiatric Department of the Maria Middelares General Hospital)

What is it?

With psychiatric day treatment at Maria Middelares General Hospital, we offer a programme for people who want to give their lives a different direction by working on themselves.

These days, many people experience the pressures of daily life as a heavy burden. It can cause a lot of stress. If other problems come on top, such as relationship issues or social problems (work, hobbies, loneliness, etcetera), then burn-out, depression and other emotional or psychiatric problems often lurk around the corner. You may recognise yourself in this description. Perhaps you often feel that you yourself are an obstacle to finding a different way to deal with the problems. ‘Moving up a gear’ proves not to be a solution, and the many other things you are already trying help for a while, but never for very long.

With our psychiatric day treatment, Maria Middelares General Hospital offers a programme to people who want to guide in their lives in a different direction by working on themselves. For a period of eight weeks, we will work as a group on topics such as self-care, coping capacity, worrying, self-image, assertiveness, communication, etcetera. We will look at the theory and then, using our own examples, try to determine what we are doing now and how we want to approach it differently in future. We will practice any learned skills both during therapy and at home so that the process of change has already been started when the therapy period finishes.

The therapy takes place in groups. Every group member has their own story. By looking at things from each others’ perspectives, we can learn a lot from each other and will see possibilities that we did not see before. Naturally, it is extremely important for group therapy that everybody feels safe in the group and that each others’ privacy is respected.

For whom?

This is aimed at adults who are willing and motivated to work on personal growth and to do so in the context of group therapy. To be eligible for the day treatment programme, it is necessary to have basic emotional stability. This means that you must not (or no longer) be in a crisis situation and that you feel strong enough outside the therapy sessions too.

‘At the start of the treatment I was very nervous. I recognised myself in all the topics that were discussed, and I learned how I can deal with situations. We are given a small task every week too, and we discuss this in the group afterwards and get feedback. This produces results. I am happy that I can follow this day treatment after having been in hospital for three weeks. You have to really want to do it, it is hard work. Yet I find it so interesting that I don’t wan to miss anything.’
Angelique R.

Treatment procedure

Every week, we work from Monday to Friday (except Wednesday) on a single topic with the support from the different therapists: psychologist, psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists and an exercise therapist.