Practice House Inspiration, a walk-in center for people with eating disorders in Bennebroek, has to two and a half month after opening, the doors are already closing. They have to leave the building on June 1. The municipality of Bloemendaal wants to accommodate Ukrainian refugees there. Joke de Wit, coOThe walk-in house manager is disappointed with the situation. “We have offered to move to a corner of the building, so that space is available for the refugees. But the municipality of Bloemendaal is adamant.”
The Praktijkhuis Inspiration Foundation received 35,000 euros from the Oranjefonds to set up the walk-in house and moved into the building on the site of the old psychiatric hospital on Rijksstraatweg in Bennebroek last February. The property is owned by the municipality of Bloemendaal, which leases the property to the foundation under an anti-squat lease.
much needed
According to Joke de Wit, the arrival of the walk-in center is urgently needed because the waiting lists in regular care for people with eating disorders can run up to a year and a half. “We get calls from parents, grandparents and grandparents about kids who are really going bad and telling us they’re so happy they can come to us.”
The walk-in house is open two days a week and five to ten people come at a time. In a living room setting, patients can be together and participate in creative workshops. Food is also offered and there is a separate room for crisis situations. “You often see the patients after a few times come here, recover enormously. Because they are finally understood. The volunteers here are all experts by experience.”
The patients who visit the walk-in center are particularly vulnerable, which means that the foundation wants to do everything it can to continue to offer them safety and continuity.
The municipality of Bloemendaal wants to receive a maximum of 100 Ukrainian refugees in the building. Moving the walk-in house to a corner of the building is not an option, according to the municipality. “We need that space ourselves for the refugees for meeting spaces, a living room, etc.,” a spokesperson for the municipality said.
Alternatives
The manager of the site has presented two alternatives to the foundation. The municipality has also put forward two alternatives, which take into account the minimum requirements that the location must meet, such as a kitchen and a living room. But according to De Wit, those locations are all not suitable. “In the village hall we can only rent a room on Sunday afternoon and the space is not suitable for the things we want to do. And Duinlust is completely remote. The girls cannot come there by bicycle, that is simply not possible. not accessible by public transport.”
Hart voor Bloemendaal is going to submit a motion tonight in the Bloemendaal city council meeting to save the walk-in house. The party calls on the council to allow the walk-in house to remain in the current building until a good alternative is found.
De Wit hopes that the council will agree. “We really want to cooperate and we are not at all in the way of the Ukrainians there. For the future, we would like to talk to the mayor about Oldenhove and the rectory next to St Joseph’s Church.”