Grant awarded for Knowledge Centre on Spiritual Care and Home-Based Chaplaincy
The Knowledge Centre on Spiritual Care and Home-based Chaplaincy has been awarded a grant for a new follow-up. This project focuses on strengthening the impact and ensuring the sustainability of Spiritual Care at Home and Care for Meaning at Home.
Through this project, we are continuing to develop high-quality care that supports a sense of purpose in the home environment. This is important because more and more people are living at home or receiving treatment at home, even when they are facing illness, loss, ageing, uncertainty or other profound life questions.
About the Knowledge Centre
For the past five years, the Knowledge Centre has brought together numerous partners from research, education and practice to develop knowledge that is useful for professionals, volunteers, trainers, organisations in the care and welfare sectors, and people who need support with life’s big questions. The University of Humanistic Studies acts as the lead organisation.
In the follow-up project, the focus is on two areas:
- Knowledge regarding the effects of spiritual care in the home setting (GV Thuis), including through research into clients’ journeys and the assessment of societal costs and benefits
- Implementation of care focused on meaning in training programmes for healthcare and welfare professionals; and incorporating GV Thuis competencies into spiritual care training programmes and continuing professional development. The focus is on the following educational groups: 1) vocational education (MBO) in healthcare and welfare; 2) higher professional education (HBO) and university education (WO) in healthcare; 3) HBO and WO in the social sector; 4) medical degree programmes (including general practice training).
These are already areas of focus within the current Knowledge Centre; this new project will enable these to be further consolidated. The grant makes it possible to disseminate the knowledge developed, strengthen collaboration and better ensure that the outcomes are applied in practice.
The project will run from 1 September 2026 to 30 August 2028 and is made possible by ZonMw.