Professor Lieve Van den Block has been honoured by the Francqui Foundation. She has been awarded the Francqui Research Professor title for her work within ageing, dementia and the end of life.
Professor Lieve Van den Block leads the research programme Aging and Palliative Care at the VUB research group Zorg rond het Levenseinde. She researches how better palliative care and support at the end of life can be offered to elderly people, people with dementia and their family members at home, in residential care centres or in other care settings.
“The Francqui Research Professor title offers me the opportunity to focus on my national and international research in these populations for the next three years. Together with a fantastic group of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at VUB, I will be able to explore how we can better organise palliative care for vulnerable elderly people, by developing and testing new models of palliative home care,” says Van den Block. “We will also be able to investigate how to optimally communicate with people with dementia and their families regarding the last years of their lives, using participatory research designs and innovative analysis techniques. The award of this chair will contribute to further strengthen the position of VUB in the wider research field of palliative and end-of-life care, both nationally and internationally.”