Dutch mental health care is reached through the GP, and that is not a formality you can route around.
The huisarts assesses, treats what can be treated in the practice, and writes the referral that unlocks everything beyond it.
Insured mental health treatment in the specialist system starts with that referral, so the first appointment to book is with a doctor, not a therapist.
The good news in The Hague is that the first step is free, fast and usually available in English, and that a great many people never need the second.
Start with the POH-GGZ
Most Dutch GP practices employ a praktijkondersteuner huisarts GGZ, a mental health practitioner working inside the surgery.
They handle mild to moderate psychological complaints: worry, low mood, anxiety, work stress and burnout.
The role covers clarifying what the problem is, short-term treatment, guidance, and preparing a referral if one is needed.
Two things make this the obvious first move.
Conversations with a POH-GGZ carry no charge and no excess, because they count as GP care.
And the waiting time is measured in days or a couple of weeks rather than the months that follow a referral.
Ask for it by name when you ring your practice.
Saying “I would like an appointment with the POH-GGZ” is a normal request that the assistant hears daily, and it skips the step where you have to explain yourself twice.
What sits above it
Beyond the practice there are two tiers.
Generalistische basis-ggz handles shorter, more structured treatment for defined problems.
Gespecialiseerde ggz handles complex or severe conditions.
Both need a referral from a GP, and both count against your 385 euro excess in a way the POH-GGZ does not.
From 2026 an exploratory conversation with a mental health provider no longer counts towards the excess, which lowers the cost of finding out whether you are in the right place.
The referral letter matters more than it looks.
It names the tier, and if it names the wrong one the provider will send it back and you begin again.
Ask your GP which tier they are referring you to and why.
The waiting lists, honestly
The national standards, called treeknormen, allow four weeks from registering with a provider to an intake appointment, ten weeks from intake to the start of treatment, and fourteen weeks in total.
They are targets, not guarantees, and mental health is the sector that breaches them most consistently.
Current national figures are harder to quote than they should be.
The NZa moved to a new reporting system in 2026 and there is a transition period in which two data streams run at once, leaving no reliable published figure for specialist mental health care until the new series settles.
So ask the provider directly for their own waiting time before you join the list, and ask for two numbers rather than one: the wait to intake and the wait from intake to treatment.
A four-week intake followed by a five-month treatment wait is a common shape and it is not what people hear when they are told “about a month”.
If the wait exceeds the norm, your insurer owes you zorgbemiddeling.
The Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit requires insurers to run a findable desk for it, and requires providers to tell patients they can ask for it whenever waiting time exceeds the applicable standard.
Use it.
It is the most under-claimed right in Dutch healthcare.
Getting it in English
Language is not a side issue in therapy, and the Netherlands is unusually well set up for this.
The question to ask any provider is not whether someone speaks English but whether treatment is delivered in English, which is a different commitment.
Within the insured system, PsyQ runs transcultural psychiatry, the service formerly known as i-psy, which works culture-sensitively and uses professional interpreters so that treatment can be offered in any language.
It has a Den Haag location and can be reached on 088 357 44 00.
That is the route for people who want insured, referral-based care in a language other than Dutch.
Outside the insured route there is a substantial private English-language practice scene in this city, built around the international organisations, the embassies and the expatriate population.
Those practices are faster to access and you pay yourself unless you have a GP referral and a policy that reimburses non-contracted care.
Ask two questions before booking: are you BIG-registered, and will my insurer reimburse this.
Psychologists and therapists in The Hague vary enormously in both.
ACCESS, which is free and local
ACCESS is a not-for-profit run by volunteers who moved here themselves, based at Lange Voorhout 12 in The Hague and operating for more than 35 years free of charge.
It runs a helpdesk on 085 4000 338, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 14:00, for questions about relocation, housing, healthcare and education.
It also runs a counsellor-on-call service on 06 1702 9750 and 06 5514 3667, available daily from 08:30 to 20:30 excluding weekends and public holidays, or through an online form.
There is no charge for the initial contact with an on-call counsellor; fees for anything that follows are agreed with the counsellor, and may be covered by insurance if you have a doctor’s referral.
It is explicitly for psychological support and recommendations, not for acute crises.
For those, ACCESS itself points people to their doctor or to 113.
Used properly it is the fastest way in this city to talk to a professional in English about whether what you are experiencing needs treatment, and it fits the same category as the other things that make the first year here survivable.
Crisis
If someone is in immediate danger, call 112.
For suicidal thoughts, 113 Zelfmoordpreventie answers on 113, free of charge, twenty-four hours a day, and also runs an anonymous chat day and night.
There is an English-language service at 113.nl/english, and the page notes that the 113 number is only reachable from inside the Netherlands for technical reasons.
Outside office hours, an acute mental health problem goes through the out-of-hours GP post on 070 346 96 69, which triages it and can involve the regional crisis service.
During the day it is your own practice.
Neither of those requires you to be already in treatment anywhere.
What this article is not
None of the above is clinical advice and no article can tell you whether what you are feeling needs treatment.
That judgement belongs to a doctor who can ask you questions and hear the answers.
What this can tell you is that the appointment costs nothing, that the first conversation is with a GP or a POH-GGZ, and that the route is the same whether you have been here three weeks or ten years.
Thuisarts.nl, written by the Dutch GPs’ own college with the Federation of Medical Specialists and the Patient Federation, is the site Dutch doctors point patients at.
It is in Dutch, and running it through a translator is an ordinary and sensible thing to do.
Practicalities that trip people up
You need a BSN and Dutch health insurance for any of the insured routes, which puts the gemeente registration upstream of mental health care as it is upstream of everything else.
Arriving without either and then waiting for a crisis is the worst version of this, and it happens often enough that it is worth saying plainly.
Costs are worth checking before the first session rather than after.
GP and POH-GGZ care: nothing, no excess.
Referred treatment in basis-ggz or specialist care: covered, but against your 385 euro excess.
Private English-language therapy without a referral: paid by you, unless your supplementary policy says otherwise.
And if the practice you are registered with does not have a POH-GGZ, or the fit is wrong, that is a reason to ask for a referral rather than a reason to stop.
GP practices in The Hague differ in what they carry in-house, and the GP is still the person who writes the letter.
Sources
- Mentaal Vitaal and Trimbos-instituut on the POH-GGZ: the role inside the GP practice, the complaints it covers including worry, low mood, anxiety and work stress or burnout, the tasks of clarifying, short-term treatment, guidance and preparing referrals, and that conversations carry no charge and no excess while referred basis-ggz or specialist care may
- Rijksoverheid, veranderingen basispakket 2026: the exploratory mental health conversation no longer counting towards the excess from 1 January 2026
- Rijksoverheid, eigen risico zorgverzekering: the 385 euro compulsory excess for 2026 and the exemption of GP care
- Staat van Volksgezondheid en Zorg, wachttijden ggz: the treeknorm of four weeks to intake, ten weeks to treatment and fourteen weeks in total, applying to both generalistische basis-ggz and gespecialiseerde ggz; and the 2026 transition in NZa reporting leaving no reliable current figure for specialist mental health care
- Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, zorgbemiddeling: the insurer’s duty to run a findable and accessible desk and the provider’s duty to inform patients when waiting time exceeds the norm
- PsyQ, transculturele psychiatrie, the service formerly at i-psy.nl: culture-sensitive working, professional interpreters allowing treatment in any language, a Den Haag location and the number 088 357 44 00
- ACCESS: the not-for-profit run by volunteers at Lange Voorhout 12, more than 35 years free of charge, the helpdesk on 085 4000 338 from Monday to Friday 10:00 to 14:00
- ACCESS, counsellor on call: the numbers 06 1702 9750 and 06 5514 3667, availability 08:30 to 20:30 daily except weekends and public holidays, no charge for initial contact, negotiated fees thereafter, possible insurance cover with a doctor’s referral, that it is for psychological support and recommendations only, and the referral to a doctor or 113 in a crisis
- 113 Zelfmoordpreventie, English pages: free calls on 113, 24 hours a day, anonymous chat day and night, and the number being reachable only from within the Netherlands
- Thuisarts.nl: run by the Dutch College of General Practitioners with the Federation of Medical Specialists and the Patient Federation Netherlands
- Hadoks: the out-of-hours GP number 070 346 96 69 for evenings, nights and weekends, and 112 for life-threatening situations
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