ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the work of the Trimbos Institute in developing a national knowledge infrastructure. It describes the projects of GGZ Drenthe to illustrate the development and testing of a methodology for formulating a knowledge strategy at an organisational level. This is followed by a description of the projects of GGZ Drenthe and GGZ Netherlands in which a functional design is presented of a knowledge portal to support care delivery, research and clinical education. Mental healthcare is a knowledge-intensive sector, but most local organisations have no knowledge management strategy and neither do they have knowledge management functions at their disposal. Unfortunately, knowledge management initiatives are mainly ICT-related and deal with existing knowledge. Furthermore, professionals will have to be taught how to deal with profound knowledge to improve their performance, and managers will have to be trained to become knowledge leaders in an era in which high performance, operational innovation and sustainability in healthcare are of the utmost importance.
