Summary: We observe that psychiatric care for psychosis in Flanders is still highly hierarchical and biomedically oriented, with a primary focus on clinical recovery. The emphasis is on symptom management, independent of individual experience and context. An alternative to this is recovery-oriented care, which also highlights personal, social, and existential recovery. The implementation of recovery-oriented psychosis care is already being actively pursued in several pioneering initiatives, but we face the societal challenge of integrating this approach more broadly into mainstream healthcare. This research project aims to contribute to this effort. Based on a focus group study involving 80 participants (patients, relatives, and professionals) from various Flemish provinces, we will develop a blueprint for recovery-oriented psychosis care. This blueprint will be a comprehensive report outlining both concrete recommendations and practical dilemmas. On the one hand, the blueprint will describe what healthcare providers should and can do to support the various aspects of the recovery process (e.g., how to handle crisis situations, how to work with individuals' strengths, how to involve peer support workers in care processes, etc.). On the other hand, it will highlight the tensions and challenges associated with recovery-oriented care and provide advice on how best to address them. The aim is to encourage healthcare providers to reflect on how they can implement these principles in their own practice.
The blueprint will be made available online for free in both Dutch and English and will be promoted through a study day on September 2, 2025. Additionally, the project aims to further use the blueprint as a working tool in education, training, and supervision within clinical practice.
Research team: Prof. Dr. Stijn Vanheule, MSc. Margot de Sloover, Dr. Bart Rabaey
Erasmus+ project: Clinical practices in institutions for the inclusion of the autistic individual
Summary: The Erasmus+ project Pratiques cliniques en Institution pour l'Inclusion du Sujet Autiste is a collaboration between Université Rennes II (France), Ghent University (Belgium), and Istituto Freudiano (Rome, Italy). The project unfolds along several axes: it has an educational goal (by involving students in research), contributes to education and training (several clinical seminars are organized around case construction), also has a clinical goal (contributing to the development of good practices for the institutional treatment of individuals with autism), and aims, through this research, to enhance the quality of life of individuals with autism.
Several seminars will be organized by each of the participating institutions, a study will map out institutional practices concerning autism in the participating countries, a position paper on case construction will be written, with several scientific publications to follow, the development of several MOOCs, and the publication of a book with clinical case studies.
Research team: Prof. Dr. Stijn Vanheule, Dr. Dries Dulsster, Dr. Bart Rabaey
Project: what is Lacanian psychoanalysis in an institution?
This study examines a range of Lacanian-oriented institutions in Belgium. Through interviews and case studies, these facilities are analyzed and theoretically linked to key concepts from psychoanalytic literature. The research aims to elucidate how analytic discourse can be rendered operative within the specific context of an institutional setting. The study will also analyze how psychoanalysis in these institutions deals with the contemporary exclusion of a range of disorders in mental health care.
