Covid-hit Belgium lets care home residents ‘take back control’ by becoming managers

More than half of all Belgium's coronavirus deaths in the first wave were in care homes. 

Credit: PA

Care home residents in Belgium are being given more control over their daily lives after retirement homes in the country were devastated by the coronavirus  pandemic. 

Roughly half of all the thousands of deaths in the first wave were in retirement homes and strict lockdown rules prevented family visits. 

More and more care homes are turning to the Tubbe method of care home management to help residents cope, as Belgium looks to revolutionise its approach to residential care after the tragedy.  

Tubbe hands power and responsibility to residents, who take an active role in care home decisions with staff. Working groups of residents and staff meet to take decisions on, for example,  meals, activities and timetables. 

Supporters of the approach claim that early evidence suggests Tubbe residents have endured the year’s traumas more successfully than those in traditional care homes. 

Coronavirus Belgium Spotlight Chart — Cases default

“There was a lot of fear here”, said Renaat Lemey, managing director of the Open Kring care home in Ardooie during a virtual meeting of Tubbe care homes about coronavirus.

He said, “In May and June, however, we started to adopt a different mindset: we will make everything safe but carry on with our lives.” 

Leen Plessers, care home coordinator of the Sint-Jozef home in Pelt, said there was “even more emphasis on contacts between the residents and contacts with care staff. In one sense it was a lovely, friendly time.”

Rubven Callewaert of the Floordam home in Melsbroek said, “It was a very difficult time, but we still didn’t feel that we were losing control.”

The King Baudouin Foundation ran six successful pilot projects for the method, which was invented in Sweden, before the pandemic hit. 

Calls to staff are four times less frequent and medical prescriptions have halved since the Regina rest home in Moresnet, the first pilot project, introduced Tubbe. 

By October, 80 care homes in Belgium were using the system, which encourages staff to adapt to residents and act more as coaches than traditional carers.

36 nursing homes in the French-speaking region of Wallonia will adopt the system after funding was set aside to roll out Tubbe further. 

"The Tubbe model is a concrete response to the crisis," said Walloon politician Laurent Heyvaert, “This allows residents to remain active in their lives.”

“The Covid-19 crisis seems to have amplified this interest,” said the region’s health minister, Christie Morreale, “the door also remains open for a further extension of this method.”