What if nursing homes could once again become, above all… homes for living? The ELAN project encourages the development of a new way of supporting older people, envisioning an environment where care makes room for relationships, listening, choice, and each person’s own pace.
ELAN is a collective drive. HELHa is leading this project in partnership with five other university colleges and the King Baudouin Foundation. The aim is to rethink training, transforming practices and mindsets in a profound way.
The partners officially signed the agreement binding them to the ELAN project on Thursday, May 15th, 2025.
A new, concrete, human, and societal project for HELHa
With great enthusiasm, six university colleges, including HELHa, began developing the ELAN project a year ago. They saw a real opportunity to link their identities as higher education institutions to a new vision of support and care in nursing homes.
Once again, the Haute École Louvain en Hainaut chose to take part in a concrete, human project in line with societal change. It serves as the reference institution for ELAN, which aims to train future Registered Nurses in a new paradigm for nursing home care.
“Bringing life back to time, supporting before treating”
ELAN, a project supported and initiated by the King Baudouin Foundation (Fondation Roi Baudouin)
The King Baudouin Foundation always works in three stages: it first lets itself be inspired or challenged by societal issues, then brings together stakeholders who can address them, and finally, once the project is launched, steps back to let them take the lead.
In the case of the ELAN project, the observation is simple and widely shared: the population is ageing. As a result, our society is faced with two key challenges: housing for seniors and first-line healthcare for older people.
The Foundation therefore decided to support the development of nursing homes that aim to change their culture: moving from a hospital-based mindset to creating genuine homes. This was not something the Foundation could achieve alone, so it turned to higher education institutions for support.
A consortium of six university colleges to take over
HELMo, Haute École Léonard de Vinci, HEPN, Henallux, EPHEC, and HELHa are jointly leading ELAN.
The momentum gained on Thursday, May 15th, 2025, is only the first step. The idea is for it to spread beyond the Registered Nurse curriculum. Other training modules could, in time, be developed for other disciplines.
At the core: the six founding pillars of the Tubbe project
Tubbe is an organisational model that aims to make nursing and care homes attractive places where it is pleasant to live and work.
Its pillars are autonomy, participation of all stakeholders, links with family and relatives, a shared vision, safe care, and relationship-oriented practices. Support is therefore tailored over time, varying from one home to another.
Click here to watch a video recorded several years ago during a visit by HELHa students to a Tubbe home.
Published on 16 May 2025
HELHa Health