The message from Skipr regarding rising waiting times in mental healthcare emphasizes how great the pressure on organizations is. In 2025, people were more than 100.000 times facing a waiting list, where waits more than half longer than the maximum acceptable 14 weeksThe average waiting time for treatment rose to 24 weeks and for specialist care such as personality disorders even up to 32 weeks.
Waiting times are a system problem, not just a capacity problem.
Analyses show that waiting times are caused not only by capacity shortages, but primarily by structural system factors:
- The number of people waiting for professional mental care and the average waiting times rose again in 2025.
- Waiting times are increasing particularly for people with complex issues (SMI, SGGZ), who wait the longest for appropriate treatment.
- The demand for mental health care is rising, partly because the proportion of Dutch people with poorer mental health has increased from 11% in 2001 to 18% in 2024, particularly among young people aged 18–45.
- Only one in five people with a mental illness ultimately uses mental healthcare services, which means that the potential demand is much greater than the visible demand.
- Mental health issues result in annual societal costs of 17 to 51 billion euros. This is an indication of the scale on which better accessibility is necessary.
In addition, there is a second crucial factor: the central government encourages regional mental health networks (MGN) through IZA/AZWA, among others. However, the cohesion between the social domain, general practitioners, and mental health services is still insufficient to actually reduce waiting times.
Why overview becomes a prerequisite
The combination of rising demand, limited capacity, and organizational fragmentation means that institutions struggle to get a good overview of the entire process:
- Inflow, lead times, actions, and outstanding tasks become scattered across various systems.
- In teams already working at maximum capacity, there is little room to analyze where delays occur.
- The group of clients who wait the longest is often the most vulnerable group, and it is also the group that becomes invisible if monitoring is insufficient.
Precisely in such a context is one coherent system for overview not a luxury, but a necessary prerequisite for effective care provision.
How CRS helps in an increasingly complex system
CRS was developed to restore clarity in that complex reality.
- One place for all information
CRS brings together appointments, files, actions, and reports so that teams can immediately see: who is waiting, for how long, where bottlenecks are occurring, where capacity is opening up, and which clients are at risk. This prevents employees from having to search through systems or work with separate lists. - Early detection of risks
When callers remain in the queue for too long, capacity comes under pressure, or a referral becomes necessary, this becomes visible early via CRS. This allows for earlier action. Waiting times are a systemic problem where early intervention and monitoring are essential. - Collaborate better with supply chain partners
When referrers, neighborhood teams, and other stakeholders have insight into the process status, noise in the chain is reduced. This aligns with the national movement to structurally strengthen collaboration. - Peace and predictability
Overview creates mental space for teams. Not by working harder, but by organizing smarter. Think of: predictable processes, up-to-date data, clarity for clients, and fewer disruptions to planning.
Skipr's figures show that the pressure on mental healthcare will not decrease on its own in the coming years. Waiting times are increasingly a symptom of an underlying system problem, in which demand, capacity, organization, cooperation, and societal development influence each other. In such a reality, an overview is not a secondary matter, but a condition for maintaining the quality and accessibility of careOverview provides control. Control provides room for care.