Employees of the mental health institution in Halsteren are upset after two violent incidents with TBS patients who belonged there. “This is your worst nightmare,” says Els Govers, board member of GGZ Westelijk Noord-Brabant in an interview with Omroep Brabant. In ten days, a woman was murdered by a TBS officer and another ended up in a shootout with the police. Since then, TBS patients staying at the Vrederust Estate have been temporarily no longer allowed to go outside.
The Vrederust Estate is home to the mental health institution that treats 5,000 clients annually. 300 of them actually stay on the estate, forty of whom are in a mild TBS regime.
Two of those TBS patients caused a lot of unrest. First, 31-year-old Elias M., who was already allowed outside unaccompanied, murdered a 75-year-old woman. A week later, a 27-year-old man forcibly escaped from the facility and ended up in a shootout with police after a long chase. A conversation with GGZ board member Els Govers.
Were both TBS patients in the same department?
“Yes, both were in De Mare. The 31-year-old man already had freedoms. He was allowed to be outside unaccompanied at certain times. Only three days after the murder did we find out that one of us was the suspect. The 27-year-old man really escaped by force through a window. We are tested annually for safety, we meet all the conditions. That is why we are extra shocked that this can happen.”
How could things go wrong twice in ten days?
“We don’t know. In addition to the police investigation, we have engaged an external and independent investigation agency. This will look at whether additional measures need to be taken and whether we have done something wrong somewhere. In the entire region it is difficult to do enough and to get good staff. But we are not so badly understaffed that that is the problem.”
Shouldn’t the doors of the TBS clinic remain locked?
“The door is now locked. We have temporarily taken extra measures to ensure the safety of clients, staff and local residents. TBS patients are currently not allowed to go on leave. But we are a healthcare institution. How long will we maintain this measure? I don’t know. What I do know is that we cannot wait for the investigation, which could take up to two months. You cannot lock people who stay in a hospital in their room for two months, that is not good care.”
Should the first TBS prisoner, who is now suspected of murder, have been allowed to walk around freely?
“As far as I can say now, good considerations were made. But afterwards you could say that he should not have walked around freely. The difficult thing is that this is human work. When they come here they have no freedoms. Then nurses look, psychiatrists and psychologists whether we can expose them to society again. “For example, we take urine samples to see whether they use substances. If possible, a client will gradually gain more freedoms and can return to society. We do that very gradually. Most of the time it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Shouldn’t the second suspect have been in a much stricter regime?
“Here too, you can conclude afterwards that he might have belonged in another department. The point is that that man has been found suitable for our department. We do not do this alone, but in consultation with the Ministry of Security and Justice. We are not about one Night ice. We look at observations, the medical file, we speak to the man and look at the crime he committed. Only then does he end up here.”
Els Govers cannot say why the two violent TBS patients were treated at the GGZ on the Vrederust Estate.
How did the escaped TBS prisoner get a car and a gun?
“We don’t know exactly yet. We don’t know whether he had a car key. I can say that he did not have a weapon in our TBS clinic. Perhaps there was a car with a weapon waiting. Perhaps, but I don’t know. It’s just not the case. The police are still investigating. You have to realize that this is a clinic. This is not a prison where people are searched all the time. There are no bars on the windows and sometimes things like this can happen, as much as I hate it. find.”
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Elias M. was given a TBS for rape, but was free in a mental health clinic