How can Dutch parents find the best options for local caregivers?
The TEDxAmsterdam Award draws attention, and offers support, to local idea-makers. The 2015 Award winner will be announced soon, but for now, the proposals have been narrowed down to three nominees. Anne-Sophie Schürmann, one of the finalists, has created an online platform to match Dutch parents to local healthcare providers, social workers and caregivers for childcare. In this interview, we ask her more about her big idea.
Your new online platform &thijs aims to connect Dutch parents with local healthcare providers, social workers and caregivers for their children. Why is it such a problem to find these childcare services in Holland?
In The Netherlands there are over 250,000 children who receive youth care. Last January a huge transition started in the youth care system. In the new system, parents will get less financial support, because government spending will be cut by 500 million euros. This means that over 30% of the families who receive financial support from the government will get a cut or no money at all.
Second of all, responsibilities shifted from health insurance companies to municipalities. Every municipality has its own rules and system when it comes to youth care. This has made the youth care system a jungle where nobody knows where to go for help or treatment — this applies to parents as well as caregivers.
But the biggest problem of shifting responsibility to the municipalities is: they expect more and more individual responsibility and self-reliance from parents. This is a huge problem because parents do not know where to seek the right help and are also unaware of what options are available with regard to types of caregivers. This means that our society has to change, families have to rely more and more on their social support system. A lot of families don’t have this social safety net and so become overloaded in their task to provide care as a parent.
The mission of &thijs is to trigger a societal change in the youth care, in which parents understand the care system and in which they can orchestrate the care they want and need themselves. We are going to do this with the launch of an online platform that creates the optimal match between a family and caregivers. &thijs is the first online platform in the Netherlands that puts parents themselves in a position to seek the help and support they need at that moment.
Why is the focus specifically on children? Is finding these services for children more challenging than for adults?
Working as a child psychologist, I learned how complex and non-transparent the youth care system is. In my practice I saw more and more families who no longer received financial support from the government and who cannot find support in their social network for caring for the child. In addition, on a weekly basis, I received queries from professionals who have become unemployed and are looking for a job in youth care. I decided to connect this supply and demand with each other. Over the past year I have done this offline through my own practice, and then, after meeting my business partner Nils, a senior software developer with 10 years experience in developing IT solutions in the healthcare industry, we decided to go online.
Think big, start small. Because of my background, network and passion we want to start in the youth care system. After validating our product, we for sure will enter into care for adults. Step by step we will develop our platform.
The platform asks parents and caregivers to fill out a profile, in order to match the right caregiver to the right needs. What are the top criteria that you take into account when trying to propose the most suitable caregivers to parents?
With &Thijs, we make the care system transparent by asking some simple questions. The answers to these questions guide the parents towards the solution: a caregiver who has a match with the child at many, different levels.
Parents can make a profile at &thijs, input all their queries and concerns, and start a search for a caregiver based on the specifics of their situation. As a parent you can select a caregiver based on experience, reference, diplomas, availability and hourly rate. We ask questions about risk and protecting factors, IQ, disability, care demand, but also practical information like the care-indication of the child, hourly rate and availability. On the profile of every caregiver, you can see reviews from families who have worked with the caregiver before.
When parents finishing their profile, they get an overview of ten caregivers. The parent can select the caregiver they think fits best with their situation. We leave this to the parent. We do this because this match, this chemistry between caregiver and child, is responsible for a 65 per cent greater chance of success (source: Dutch Youth Institute). So Pieter’s mother would like to have the best social skills trainer in the neighborhood and she will choose a specialist with a lot of experience but less time, whereas Kim’s father will go for a professional with a lot of reviews from other parents and with a flexible schedule.
From homework support for your child with ADHD, a buddy for your child with a mental disability, to social skills training for your child with autism, you can find it at &thijs. We offer parents the ‘social safety net’ where they have such a need. &thijs is the place where parents for the first time are empowered in choosing a caregiver for their child.
It seems like the factor critical to the success of the platform is including as many quality providers as possible. What is your approach to ensure that you’re listing all the available providers? Are there some guidelines to ensure that only properly certified practitioners are listed, so parents know they can trust the people found through the platform?
– Every caregiver has to be signed up in Kwaliteits register Jeugd.
– Every caregiver has to upload his ID-card and certificates.
– Every caregiver has a personal intake with &thijs on the phone.
– Every caregiver has to have a review of a family with whom they have worked before.
And of course all the data we gather is stored safely and securely.
You’ve got the website online now, but you’ll be announcing an official launch soon. What are the next steps for &thijs?
Next month we will be live with the matching part of the platform. Even though the platform is not online yet, already 120 professionals have signed up and, even more exciting, one of the biggest youth care organizations in the Netherlands wants to partner with us.
Last week we started a cooperation with the municipality of Amsterdam; with the Startup in Residence program. So we have already great partners, but we will need more cooperations with healthcare institutions and municipalities, in order to be there for all the parents and children in The Netherlands.
Over the next months, we will start making the first matches, getting traction and the most important thing: SPREADING THE WORD! Especially schools, healthcare professionals, and parents have to know that we exist! A huge challenge. So we are looking for people who want to help us with marketing and PR to reach these special target groups!
Originally published at tedx.amsterdam on November 23, 2015.
