Welcome to De Waerden
De Waerden is a professional organisation that provides services for people in the province of North Holland who live with a handicap. We make sure that people with a handicap are able to live and work in a way that suits them. We believe in the principle of equality between people and we endeavour to facilitate participation in society and personal development.
Our clients
Our clients are children, adults and senior citizens with a mental handicap. We also provide services for families in which one or both parents have a mental handicap. De Waerden also supports people with other handicaps, such as children with a disorder in the autistic spectrum and people who have been diagnosed with two coexisting conditions, such as a mental handicap and an addiction problem.
Our services
De Waerden supports its clients in a variety of ways. We run small residential centres where clients live together in small communities and we also run daily activity centres where clients work together in small groups. For clients who want to be more independent we are able to provide a form of ambulant supervision both at home and at work. The frequency and length of this supervision differs from one client to another and depends on the client’s situation. We adapt our services to meet the needs of our clients and their environment.
Our staff
De Waerden employs just under four hundred and fifty people. All of these people have their own area of expertise and they use it to contribute to the well-being of our clients. Most of the people we employ are professional (personal) supervisors who are able to operate independently within an organisation or within an ambulant team. People who perform support functions, such as cooking and cleaning, may also work within these teams. The teams themselves are also supported by all kinds of specialists such as behavioural experts and doctors. And we often work with other care providers in order to provide the best possible services for our clients.
Financing
The services that we provide are financed by the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act (AWBZ). This is a national insurance scheme that covers exceptionally high medical expenses. The AWBZ is implemented by special care liaison offices set up by the health insurers.
If a person needs help with household tasks or personal care tasks, or skilled nursing or some other form of care they have to undergo an assessment to determine precisely what kind of help and care they need. In the Netherlands an organisation known as Centrum Indicatiestelling Zorg (CIZ) determines whether people are entitled to care financed by the AWBZ. Care organisations such as De Waerden publish annual accounts and also answer to the care liaison offices and the government for the quality of the services they provide.