Multidisciplinary guidelines in Dutch mental health care: plans, bottlenecks and possible solutions

Abstract

This article describes the Dutch 'Multidisciplinary Guidelines in Mental Health Care' project and its first products (multidisciplinary guidelines on depressive and anxiety disorders). CONTEXT OF CASE: In the early 1990s, disciplines in Dutch mental health care formulated their first monodisciplinary guidelines, which disagreed on essential features. In 1998, the Dutch government invited representatives of the five core disciplines in mental health care (psychiatrists, general practitioners, psychotherapists (clinical), psychologists and psychiatric nurses) to start a joint project aimed at the development of new integrated multidisciplinary guidelines.