The origins of ACCESS are firmly rooted in concerns for the mental well-being of the international community of The Hague. This term encompassed not simply the active needs at the time, but had a preventive component as well. ACCESS was also established to "...promote the emotional and social well-being for English-speaking people in the Netherlands."

In 1985, working at the American School and through meetings with school administrators, business people, and clergy, Patrick Foley, an American School Counsellor, became aware of a problem. There was a preponderance of family conflicts, marital problems, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression in English-speaking house-holds.

English-speakers were reluctant to work with Dutch psychologists because of cultural and language differences. As a result, there was no organised response to mental health issues specific to the English-speaking community.

With support from the broader English speaking community at the time, plus a subsidy from the US Department of Health a Community Mental Health Needs Assessment was undertaken. It recommended the establishment of a network of "qualified and competent" English-speaking expatriate psychologists; developing educational and professional criteria for network membership; and creating easier access to the network via a "telephone contact point" with an on-call counsellor.

The CSN (Counsellor Service Network) continues to serve these same needs 25 years on. And ACCESS, building on this cornerstone has, through its volunteer network continued to support the needs of the community in a preventive manner, by not only offering volunteering opportunities to many, but by adding to their services educational, training, self-help and self-improvement courses and information, in English and tailored to the needs of an expatriate community.

For a detailed history of the organisation please read the insert of the Autum 2011 magazine.