New HSO member: Simone de Bruin

I’ve always had an affinity with care for older people and with dementia care. As a student, I therefore had jobs in a residential home and in a home care organization. Nowadays, I am still eager to contribute to health services and I try to achieve this via various research projects. In 2009, I obtained my PhD-degree at Wageningen University & Research. My PhD research was on exploring the potential health benefits of adult day services at green care farms for people with dementia. In my current position, I am leading several research projects on the organization and quality of long-term care. Research topics include integrated care for older people, health care innovations for people with dementia, and reforms in the long-term care sector. Within my projects, it is my ambition to ensure sufficient alignment of care and support services with the preferences, needs, and capacities of service users.

There is a clear match between the work of the Health & Society chair group and that of my department at RIVM. That’s why we are collaborating for many years already. For example, we collaborated on projects on green care farming and nature-based services in urban areas for people with dementia. This resulted in several scientific papers, non-scientific materials such as factsheets, and joint workshops at several conferences. Now I am at the Health & Society chair group every week, I hope to further strengthen our fruitful collaboration!"