Meaning-in-life deserves a natural place in healthcare and society, especially care for people living in their homes.
The Knowledge Centre on Spiritual Care & Home-Based Chaplaincy connects research, education and practice to make this possible and to actively drive this development.
This Knowledge Centre on Spiritual Care & Home-Based Chaplaincy is a national collaborative network in the Netherlands, bringing together chaplains, healthcare and social care organisations, academic institutions and policymakers. Our focus is on chaplaincy and spiritual care in the home setting: providing existential and spiritual support to people living at home, outside institutional care settings. The Knowledge Centre emerged from a growing societal and political recognition that attention to meaning-in-life contributes to well-being, health and quality of life – not only in hospitals and care institutions, but also in everyday community life.
Many people with existential or spiritual questions remain outside formal care systems. At the same time:
Our work is organised through publicly funded programmes and projects, that bring together chaplains, healthcare and social care professionals, researchers, educators and policymakers. We actively connect practice, research and education, ensuring that knowledge is developed in close interaction with the people who use it in daily practice. Within this collaborative setting, we co-create:
• Knowledge and research
• Practical tools and methods
• Education and professional training
At the same time, we facilitate continuous exchange between partners, support professional development, and contribute to the positioning of home-based chaplaincy within both the healthcare system and the social domain. This integrated approach allows us to build a shared knowledge base while continuously strengthening professional practice and societal impact.
We collaborate with:
• Chaplains and professional associations
• Healthcare and social care organisations
• Municipalities and policymakers
• Universities and universities of applied sciences
• Community organisations and social domain networks
Through our programmes, partnerships and knowledge development, we contribute to:
This approach is effective because it is firmly grounded in collaboration and real-world practice. By involving professionals, educators and researchers from the very beginning, the knowledge we develop is immediately relevant, applicable and responsive to everyday challenges. This creates shared ownership across sectors, strengthens commitment and accelerates implementation.
At the same time, working across organisational and disciplinary boundaries helps to bridge gaps between healthcare, social care and policy. As a result, innovations are not only developed, but also embedded more sustainably in everyday practice and in the systems that support it.
We work towards a future in which attention to meaning-in-life is an integral and self-evident part of healthcare and society, including within people’s home environments.
Our ambition is that support for existential and spiritual questions becomes accessible to everyone, not as an exception, but as a standard component of care and community support.
In this future, home-based chaplaincy is a recognised and well-positioned profession, with a clear role within both healthcare and the social domain.
By continuing to strengthen collaboration, build knowledge and support professional development, we contribute to the structural embedding of meaning and chaplaincy in policy, practice and education.
Meaning-in-life isnot the exception, but a natural and integral part of human lives, care and society.
Wil je meer weten of heb je een opmerking?
Neem contact met ons op via:
info@kenniswerkplaatszingeving.nl
Dit project wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door:
