Patrick Leenen - The power of suffering

“Our care system is sick” “Our care system is sick,” Patrick Leenen claims. “We think that an addict will be cured and will pick up his or her life as if nothing happened. No way. People will fall back in their former habits in no time. But if we look at the problem from a network perspective we can help them to really rebuild their lives.” From studying psychology and dual diagnostics Patrick worked in different roles at GGZ for many years. He was surprised by the fact that treatments for addicts were stopped when they fell back into old habits. “You don’t stop a psychological treatment when someone has an episode, why do we stop the treatment for addicts?” Patrick developed a no-nonsense treatment which addresses every part of a sick person’s life. Not just the illness but also everything that illness has destroyed, from financial issues to personal life. “There is a trend of ‘pleasing’ in the healthcare system, making the patient a shared decision maker. We shouldn’t bend the rules. We try to help a client but at the same time we hold on to the same rules that apply for ourselves. This way the client rehabilitates better.” Patrick shows amazing results with his treatment method. What those results are, you’ll hear in his talk.

“If you look at the people you know, the people around you, who of them is suffering from mental distress or mental disorder?”

“Our care system is sick,” Patrick Leenen claims. “We think that an addict will be cured and will pick up his or her life as if nothing happened. No way. People will fall back in their former habits in no time. But if we look at the problem from a network perspective we can help them to really rebuild their lives.”

Family doctors and the healthcare system are just doing their jobs and follow protocols. They focus on the presented symptoms instead of the main source of the problem. The system is broken.

Patrick decided to develop a successful approach accessible for everyone. It’s called the M.A.D. approach: Motivation Analysis Diagram. Successful, because results show a reduction of fallbacks from 85 to 10 percent! An approach based on influencing the level of suffering, by recognizing it, stop focussing on what people want but focussing on what they need and using the level of suffering as powerful tool to evolve. Imagine the benefits!