Press release
The H.U.B adopts collaborative governance in psychiatry
Brussels, 15 October 2025 — The Department of Psychiatry at the Brussels University Hospital (H.U.B) is adopting a unique collaborative approach in caring for patients with psychiatric problems. Inspired by international models, this unique approach marks a turning point in our conception of the way mental health is treated. It was presented yesterday at the 11th Rencontres Soignantes en Psychiatrie [Psychiatric Care Conference] organised by the journal Mental Health in Paris.
Rethinking psychiatry: network diagnosis
For a long time, psychiatry was based on a traditional biomedical model that sought a relationship of cause and effect between life events and psychiatric symptoms — “He is depressed because he has lost his job,” for example. This linear and causal vision is no longer sufficient.
The new approach adopted by the H.U.B is based on a network model in which every element in a person’s life — health, family relations, job, administrative procedures, environment — is regarded as part of an interconnected knot. Together these form a living cartography of the patient’s issues.
Each member of the care team (psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, etc.) brings his or her own reading to the situation to build a shared and evolving understanding of the situation.
“A person cannot be reduced to their psychiatric symptoms or to a single cause. This collaborative model makes it possible to interconnect the medical, psychological and social elements. The patient is no longer “treated” from a single perspective, but supported by a genuine team that thinks and acts together,” explains Professor Pierre Oswald, Head of the H.U.B Department of Psychiatry.
A truly collaborative governance
Within this new dynamic, every professional has a voice. Every week the team defines, discusses and reappraises the patient’s care priorities as part of a horizontal dynamic in which communication and trust take precedence over traditional hierarchical frameworks.
The role of nurse takes on a new dimension as the guarantor of trust, motor for the link between disciplines and spokesperson for the patient’s day-to-day reality.
“This model gives new meaning to our work. We are no longer content to simply act on instructions: we reflect together, we share our views, we learn to listen to contributions from other disciplines. This strengthens team cohesion and, above all, the quality of the care and support for the patient,” explains Anthony Arend, Head Nurse at the H.U.B Department of Psychiatry.
More a change of culture than a hospital protocol
The aim of this approach is above all human and organisational. It aims to encourage truly multidisciplinary care that is not focused on the diagnosis but rather on all the dimensions that influence the patient’s life and recovery. This model is also an invitation to rethink connections with the exterior: family network, first line actors and community structures are all included in the hospitalisation reflection so as to prepare a more fluid discharge and more stable return to everyday life.
An inspiration for the future of psychiatric care
The H.U.B Department of Psychiatry aims, in the long term, to become a reference for this kind of integrated collaboration and encourage other institutions — psychiatric hospitals as well as general psychiatry services — to draw inspiration from it.
“It is not a miracle method but rather a necessary development,” stresses Professor Oswald. “We want to open up a space for reflection and cooperation between care staff and give new life to our practices in which the patient is central, not as the recipient of care but as a an individual at the heart of a living network.”
Contact
Louis Dijon
Marine Lhomel