Federatie van Wit-Gele Kruisverenigingen van Vlaanderen, Belgium

Dr. Kristel de Vliegher

Kristel De Vliegher holds a Master Degree in Nursing Science from KU Leuven University, Belgium, since 2001. She works at Wit-Gele Kruis van Vlaanderen, the largest organization for home nursing in Flanders, Belgium since September 5^th 2001: 16 years as Staff Member of the Nursing Department and 2 years as head of that Nursing Department. In 2015, she successfully defended her PhD dissertation on ‘Caring for homecare: A multimethod analysis of the current and future role of home nurses’. She is 10% affliated as voluntary employee of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery, University of Leuven.

Mr. Bram Fret

Bram Fret completed his MSc in Adult Educational Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2007. He started his career as a staff member at the Kenniscentrum Woonzorg Brussel. Since 2009 he works at the White Yellow Cross (a big organisation for home nursing) as a staff member where he took actively part in the WeDO project (for the Wellbeing and Dignity of Older People). Other activities include innovation and quality projects for frail older people and research projects. Since 2015 he is also a member of the Belgian Ageing Studies (BAS) research team. The BAS refers to a project which seeks to monitor local challenges and opportunities, as well as issues of quality of life, among home-dwelling older adults in order to provide tools for evidenced-based ageing policies at local level. 

Bram recently completed a PhD on care and support for frail older adults. The PhD took part of the D-SCOPE project (Detection – Support and Care of Older People: Prevention and Empowerment) financed by the FWO. The project started from the observation that frailty in older adults is often not detected in time. Prevention of frailty in older adults benefits the older person, his environment and be more cost-effective for society. The D-SCOPE project is a partnership between the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), University College Ghent (HOGENT), University of Antwerp (UA), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) and the University of Maastricht (UM). Bram combined his research with further activities within the White Yellow Cross.