"Thanks to ggz and Amaryllis, I am not a bum"

When Letty enters Jan's house, she is startled. The walls and floor are bare concrete. In the living room there is only a sofa, TV and lots of empty beer cans. There is mould everywhere. Jan no longer gets off the sofa. Indeed, he can no longer get off it. That's how bad things are for him. Letty decides to intervene together with the housing association and the mental health service. Letty is a social worker on Amaryllis' EPA team. EPA stands for severe psychiatric disorders. This team works with the ggz. Where the ggz works on residents' psychiatric condition, Amaryllis works on that person's living environment.

Before Letty meets Jan, he is not doing well. He has a tough childhood. The only person he gets along with is his sister. When she dies, things go completely wrong. "I didn't go outside for two or three years," says Jan. "I didn't dare. I was afraid something would happen to me. I conjured up all kinds of situations in my head. You have to think of it this way: when I think of a match, I then think of fire and then that my house could catch fire."

"I didn't let anyone in anymore, didn't want help. I thought it was all okay. I blocked everything out and drank beer to avoid thinking about it," Jan recalls. "One day, two policemen stood in my living room. They had broken the lock. The stench in my flat was so bad that it could be smelt in the corridor." After a report from the housing department to the social neighbourhood team, Letty was able to intervene. Jan was forced to accept help.

Letty together with the other parties arranged for Jan to stay in a nearby hotel while his flat was completely cleaned. That was already quite a step for Jan. "The first time I went out again, I was very anxious," he says. Nevertheless, he persevered and went to the hotel. "The GGD had to clean the flat twice," says Letty. "Then, together with volunteers from the Present Foundation, we painted and redecorated. Through giveaway corners and thrift shops, we gathered some furniture together."

Jan also saw that he could not do without help. "I was faced with the facts, I couldn't get out of it anymore. Ggz and Amaryllis made sure I was not put on the street as a vagrant." Now that Jan is back in a refurbished flat, he has a much more positive outlook on life. "I am slowly rebuilding. I am under guardianship with Bewindplus Friesland. They are very humane and help me well. For the rest, I have Letty. She often helps me with the mail. I have so much on my mind already, so when I get a difficult letter, it's very nice to have someone to look at it with me." "Thanks to all this help, the treatment at the mental health centre also works better," Letty adds. "Jan was just surviving. Now that the guardianship and I help with finances and mail, he has much less on his mind."

He also has a wheelchair and gets out the door again. "I have a wmo taxi pass through the municipality. That is really a resort. With that, I can go to the supermarket or to the hospital et cetera," Jan explains. Jan is doing so well now that they are looking for suitable day care. And that is very special, because then he will be back among people more. "I'm really mega proud," says Letty. Jan has a tip for people in a similar situation to the one he was in: "It's not a bad thing to take help. There are always options, but sometimes you don't see them. Ggz and Amaryllis can help with that."