Employees of Reformed Zorggroep shared ‘disrespectful and humiliating’ images of the mentally disabled on Snapchat

Employees of an institution for the mentally handicapped in the Zuid-Mollande village of Bodegraven, from the Reformed care group Sirjon, have made ‘disrespectful and humiliating’ images of clients and shared that in a private Snapchat group. Jan van Ginkel announced this on Tuesday. Six employees are suspended. The images would not be of a sexual nature.

« On May 14, I was informed of a serious violation of the privacy of a group of clients with a disability at one of our (…) locations in Bodegraven, » said Van Ginkel. « This is – as it turns out – one client group with one group of employees who work there. » The driver watched the images with his own eyes on Saturday evening, he said, and is « shocked, sad and ashamed » about what he has seen. He did not want to release details, so as not to get in the way of the ongoing investigation. It is also not known how many clients have been affected.

Zorggroep Sirjon has twenty institutions in care for the disabled and does elderly care in Rijssen and Barneveld. More than 1,300 employees guide and provide around 600 clients and 180 elderly people.

Reformational

The organization has a distinct reformational vision: she wants to « people who are vulnerable and thereby do what God asks of us. » The organization was born more than forty years ago from the need for care with a reformational twist. Since then, the organization has been popular with its own supporters, with full waiting lists and once in a while a new location, now spread throughout the Netherlands. Against Ad Said a care manager in 2019: « The Bible is our guideline. The singing of psalms, reading from the Bible and praying just as it is done at home, clients also gives peace and recognition. »

The suspended employees have violated the core values ​​of Sirjon – according to a press release: equivalence, love, dedication and responsibility – Van Ginkel said during the press moment. He described the them as « well -trained and experienced, that’s why we are all the more surprised and touches us all the more. » Anyone who wants to apply for Sirjon is deemed to have « a Christian identity » and be a member of a Reformed Church.

It is precisely because of that Christian identity that Sirjon thinks it is important to be transparent about what went wrong, Van Ginkel said: « Our compass now asks us to open up, to show that we are of paramount importance to our values. » The director emphasized that the other employees in Bodegraven, who are not suspended, « just remain a full part of our organization », because there are no signals that they are involved in making and sharing the explicit images.

External research

The oldest images that Van Ginkel saw were nine months old. An external study must, among other things, show whether the images have also ended up in places other than just the private group on Snapchat, and whether, in addition to in Bodegraven, this also played in other places. Sirjon has informed the Health Care and Youth Inspectorate and the Dutch Data Protection Authority on the issue, but sees ‘no ground’ for a declaration.

« In these difficult circumstances, we in particular wish our clients and their families God’s proximity, » Sirjon writes in a press release. « This event also requires reflection on how we, as an organization, actually put our values ​​into practice. It is of great importance that we are thoroughly investigating the situation in order to learn and thereby work on restoring trust. »

To share

Mail the editors