Queen Fabiola Fund
A platform for the exchange of ideas and new initiatives
Established within the King Baudouin Foundation on 10 October 2004, on World Mental Health Day, the Queen Fabiola Fund continues the activities of what was formerly the Queen Fabiola Foundation.
The fund's overall objective is to take action and support projects in the field of mental health and to encourage exchanges of ideas and good practices between organisation and associations that are active within, as well as outside, the care sector.
The fund has five key objectives:
- to highlight the importance of mental health in our society
- to involve users and their families in the development and organisation of mental healthcare
- to support the work of professionals in the various types of mental healthcare
- to encourage the various sectors and those involved to participate actively in the optimisation of mental health
- to support further reflection about mental health issues
Activities by cycle
First cycle (2007-2009)
The first cycle had as its theme Work and Mental Health. During this phase, problems resulting from job loss and questions about the (re-)integration through work of those with psychological problems were examined.
Second cycle (2010-2014)
The second cycle enabled the Queen Fabiola Fund to continue its activities on the theme of Work and Mental Health.
In 2011, with a view to increasing its effectiveness even more, the Queen Fabiola Fund joined forces with the Julie Renson Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation. In working together, the three partners established four important markers for their work, namely to:
- recognise and give visibility to psychological vulnerability
- encourage an approach that favoured patient autonomy and his/her network
- defend the rights of psychiatric patients
- call upon real-life experience
Several lines of action were followed by the Queen Fabiola Fund, the Julie Renson Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation: projects were supported, grants and prizes of encouragment were distributed in Belgium to improve the path of work (re-)integration for people with psychological problems: research was undertaken on the dangers of being out of work; focus groups and interviews (collecting users' own experience) were organised in order to strengthen the voice of users in building bridges between the world of work and that of mental health; recommendations were developed from users' points of view with the aim of improving collaboration between the systems of care and employment.
The funds and the King Baudouin Foundation also programmed for 2013-2014, two research studies on the practices of support and the support services used by those with psychological problems and their friends/family, with a view to improving the quality of their lives.
These research projects, led by UMons and KUL-LUCAS, led to the publication of two reports, ‘Le rétablissement en pratique(s) – Accompagner autrement les personnes en difficultés psychiques’ (Recovery in practice – A different way of supporting people with psychological problems) and ‘Le rétablissement par soi-même – Vivre plein d’espoir avec une vulnérabilité psychique’ (Self-recovery – Living full of hope with a psychological vulnerability).
Third cycle (2015-2019)
The Queen Fabiola Fund, still associated with the Julie Renson Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation, continued its activities using three working objectives, defined by the partners:
- to strengthen those organisations active in mental health recovery
- to carry out a study on social representations relating to mental health in order to boost initiatives designed to nuance the perceptions of mental health problems within society
- to support initiatives that help young people to take the difficult step from adolescence to adulthood.
Fourth cycle (2020-2024)
The Queen Fabiola Fund together with the Julie Renson Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation will focus first of all on the essential links between mental health and frontline care.
Initially, they will draw up an inventory of good practices existing in Belgium and internationally.
Secondly, they will support and disseminate in Belgium, the good practices that have been identified.
After having focused on ambulatory care in the previous cycle, the Queen Fabiola Fund, in association with the Julie Renson Fund and the King Baudouin Foundation, will support hospital professionals.
Firstly they will get healthcare professionals and users to think about the role of the hospital in the process of mental healthcare patients' recovery (how should the hospital organise itself to guarantee the best care outcomes for users?).
Then, they will support projects that contribute to help hospitals play their role in users' recovery, in concertation with others (within the care teams and within the (outpatients') network, whilst respecting the place and role of each.
Contact:
King Baudouin Foundation
Rue Bréderode 21
1000 Brussels
Tel. : +32 (0)2-549.61.73
Fax : +32 (0)2-511.52.21
www.kbs-frb.be