On 25 September 2014, GGZ Delfland presented Suraya van Bruggen with the Cokky Kraaij Prize, which included a bronze statue made by me and a cash prize. Her colleagues described her as “a golden force”. On the same day, the Cokky Kraaij lecture was also given by philosopher Rene ten Bos.

The prize was intended for care providers at GGZ Delfland such as Cokky: people who devoted their heart and soul to their patients every day and who had a clear vision of what good mental health care entails. The Cokky Kraaij Prize and the Cokky Kraaij Lecture were created to encourage such wonderful qualities in care providers, to stimulate the quality of care within GGZ Delfland and to honor Cokky’s spiritual heritage. Based on the criteria for this prize, all GGZ Delfland employees could nominate via the scout candidates. This could be (student) nurses or teams of nurses within GGZ Delfland.

Thanks to her genuine interest in the well-being of people, Cokky was also able to learn strongly against measures that threatened to compromise the quality of care and the rights of her colleagues. The growing call for more market forces in the healthcare sector and the increasing spending cuts caused her great concern and prompted her to apply for the Works Council in 2003. Collegiality and quality of care were of paramount importance to Cokky, and her membership of the Works Council was a logical consequence of this. One achievement that she was happy with is the pause arrangement that has resulted in colleagues who had not had a break getting this time back or getting paid.

In her spare time, Cokky was often busy with her work. Her closets at home were overflowing with books on psychology, management, philosophy and novels that elaborated on certain psychological or philosophical ideas. She drew a lot of inspiration for her daily work from that. Contemplation was a precondition for her and as (deputy) chairman of the Works Council she benefited greatly from that. Her profound knowledge and extensive work experience enabled her to argue very well-argued and convincingly for or against certain measures, thereby offering opponents an unsalted reply. As a result, she was also an equal discussion partner of the Executive Board when it came to explaining policy and the implementation of amended legislation in healthcare.

At the end of 2011, Cokky completed training to become a union consultant. During this training she made new contacts. In order to emphasize the need for a reconsideration of healthcare, Cokky initiated and organized the symposium ‘Craftsmanship versus market forces in GGZ’ from GGZ Delfland in collaboration with the Healthcare sector of AbvaKabo FNV in October 2010. She expertly assumed the day chairmanship. The fact that, in addition to a number of scientific initiators, the vision of a self-help organization was given about the future of mental health care was indicative of Cokky Kraaij’s contribution.

For more information, please read: Cokky Kraaij Prize