Samenvatting

The organization and execution of forensic care in the Netherlands has changed considerably over the last six years. In this paper the authors define forensic care as all mental health care for adults under the criminal law, including care for the intellectual disabled, and addiction care. Before 2007 the Ministry of Security and Justice sole responsibility was the financing and execution of the measure detention under a hospital order (the so-called TBS-measure). All other forms of forensic care were then provided under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports. Nowadays, the Ministry of Security and Justice is responsible for all forensic care. The main reasons for this change were the increase observed in the number of patients detained under a hospital order and an increase in the length of stay necessary for the successful completion of the treatment, which resulted in an overload of the TBS-system, an observed lack of care possibilities for the detained, and a lack of transition between forensic and regular care.