Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Group
The research group MENT, founded in 2014, aims to gain scientific insight in and to promote mental health and wellbeing of (sub)populations. Mental health and wellbeing is understood as a broad concept, which is more than solely the absence of mental health disorders. Everyone’s mental health and wellbeing can be affected in difficult lifetimes: children and adolescents, elderly, immigrants and other minority groups, LGBTs, singles, patients, caregivers, etc. Research is conducted from a public health perspective, starts from a holistic biopsychosocial health/disease model, is transdisciplinary and uses mixed methods.
The wide range of topics that MENT has studied and/or is currently studying:
- psychosocial needs and coping strategies of single cancer patients
- sexuality problems in people with incurable chronic diseases
- psychosocial problems and stigma among immigrant SSA women with AIDS in Belgium
- characteristics of and psychosocial care for people who attempted suicide
- the impact of terrorism on health, societal support of victims
- wellbeing during the end-of-life phase
- sexual feelings in the psychotherapeutic relationship
- intercultural mediation in healthcare
- attitudes and role of nurses towards euthanasia on the basis of unbearable suffering
- difficult communication in healthcare (intensive care, genetic labs, …)
- school-reintegration of children treated for a brain tumor
- stress among healthcare givers