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Krefeld. Head of department Sabine Lauxen praises the work of the team in the Corona crisis
The municipal health department has new management: The new department head Kirstin Lintjens (50) last worked at the St. Augustine Group in Neuss and has been working in the Krefeld administration for a few weeks. Kirstin Lintjens was born in the Netherlands, grew up in Kerkrade, after finishing school she first studied at the Hogeschool Sittard University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and then obtained a Master of Health Care from the Rijksuniversiteit Maastricht. After completing her studies, the nursing scientist worked at various stations and then, after a three-year stay abroad, worked as a project manager at the St. Augustinus Group from 2006. Kirstin Lintjens has held a management position in the area of housing for the disabled since 2018. In the Krefeld Health Department, she succeeds Dr. Agnes Court, who will continue to lead medical services in the Department of Health, and acting head David Nowak. Kirstin Lintjens lives with her husband and four children in Mönchengladbach.
Health department head Sabine Lauxen emphasizes that the job advertisement for the department head deliberately did not explicitly look for a doctor. “What was particularly important to us was the management experience and the associated leadership role.” Sabine Lauxen would like to see an open culture in the company and sees this fully confirmed in the selection of the new department head after the first few weeks. Kirstin Lintjens considers one of the main tasks to be the further opening of the house to the citizens. She wants to work “on an equal footing” with her colleagues. The team can be proud of the work that has been done so far during the corona pandemic. “We are the health department, all together” is the message she wants to send to the team. Together we will also master upcoming tasks.
Kirstin Lintjens gained a very positive impression of her department in the first few weeks: “It’s an incredibly motivated team, I noticed that in the first few weeks. Together we will achieve a lot.” She sees herself as a solution-oriented person, open in communication, and always with an open door for the workforce.” She emphasizes that she can bring a lot of important experience to the new job in Krefeld from her previous jobs new department head. “I enjoy optimizing,” says Kirstin Lintjens. Cooperation at the medical specialist conference, for example, also contributes to a good exchange at eye level. “Such structures help us to take action quickly if a problem is identified somewhere.”
The fact that the city’s health department constantly wanted to take on new challenges during the Corona crisis is proof of the great flexibility, says Sabine Lauxen. “The health department worked seven days a week, even on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and many took on jobs that did not correspond to their actual professional field.” The corona crisis is not over yet, says Kirstin Lintjens. “We have to be prepared when new variants appear in the fall, when many vaccinations will soon be necessary again. That’s why it’s good that there is a functioning infrastructure that we can hold on to. We want to be prepared for next fall. With the vaccination center Seidenweberhaus and the neighboring diagnosis center we are well positioned, the processes are practiced.
Fighting the Corona crisis will remain one of the main tasks in the coming months. Nevertheless, Kirstin Lintjens wants to focus even more on prevention in the future, for example in dental prophylaxis for children. “We will now be able to go out more in schools and daycare centers.” And more conclusions will have to be drawn from statistical data such as the results of the school entrance examination. “We get kids moving, which offers can we create here together with other actors? These are questions that will move us.”
Kirstin Lintjens will also accompany the further way to the drug help center on Schwertstraße. Here, too, the new head of department is helped by the experience from previous jobs. “Addiction disorders are always linked to mental health problems. It is almost always a double diagnosis. A facility like the drug help center will offer opportunities to enter into a dialogue with the scene and to make offers of help. These are completely new opportunities and I hope that many addicts will also take advantage of them.”
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