TAKING CARE OF YOU

IS OUR PASSION

Slow care on a fast bike
Wheel of Care is a partnership of midwives and nurses who provide home care in Brussels.

Wheel of Care is a non-profit association of midwives and nurses who provide sustainable and holistic home care in Brussels. We strive to make care accessible to everyone by using the third-party payer system, where patients only pay their share while the health insurance fund reimburses the care provider directly.

Our entire care team is registered, allowing us to keep the threshold for care requests as low as possible and reach everyone who needs care. We provide "slow care", taking the time needed for each patient while being conscious of the sustainable use of materials and transport. To achieve this, we make all our home visits by electric bike, a healthy and environmentally-friendly choice.

By offering "slow care" and taking a preventive approach, we hope to inspire the healthcare of tomorrow. Our midwives offer prenatal care at the homes of pregnant women and at the Nieuwland and North Child Houses. Postnatally, families are mainly followed up at their homes. Our nurses provide home care in the municipality of 1000 Brussels and the areas up to 2 kilometres around this zone, as well as at the Nieuwland Child House.

If you are interested in partnering with us, please don't hesitate to contact us.

 

"SLOW CARE

ON A FAST BIKE"

We hope that our way of working can serve as an inspiration for the healthcare of tomorrow.

Warm home care in Brussels

Brussels is a vibrant city, full of life and energy. But Brussels is also a city where blending in with the crowd is not always easy. Families arriving in Belgium who do not know anyone, for example, can quickly become invisible, as can older people who are no longer physically strong enough to move around. The recent lockdowns have only reinforced this problem.

We believe home care is part of the solution. The familiar face of a caregiver who visits frequently breaks through the isolation. Health problems and risks can be identified and help called in more rapidly.

The relationship we build with our patients is based on trust. We listen and can discuss difficulties one is going through to look for solutions together.

Wheel of Care is a partner of "Huis van het Kind Nieuwland" and "Huis van het Kind Noord". In both houses, we rent a consultation room to receive pregnant women and their partners as well as parents with children older than one month. The Houses of the Child's mission perfectly matches ours: to reach and support vulnerable parents. 

By getting to know the other partner organisations that are also present in the Houses of the Child, we can quickly call upon them when a family is in need.

Wheel of Care works in collaboration with several services that are also involved in nursing and midwifery care across all care lines in Brussels.

We are partners of the following projects:

We work also closely together with several hospitals in Brussels, general practitioners, gynaecologists, the expertise centre de Volle Maan, Kind en Gezin & ONE, and home care nurses and midwives.

To promote cycling in the city, we are in close contact with the founders of Bike for Brussels, the organisers of Critical Mass, the Tandem cafés, and Les soquettes en titane.

Thanks to the generous support of our main sponsor BOSCH EBIKE SYSTEMS, we can continue to provide high-quality home care in Brussels.

Do you want to know more about our partnership? Read our full article in French or Dutch

We are always looking for new projects that share our values.

Do you want to collaborate with us? Don't hesitate to contact us!

 

READ BELOW HOW IT ALL BEGAN!

Flora Billiouw, the founder of Wheel of Care, was born and raised in the Marolles neighbourhood. In 2017, she began our project "Wheel of Care," an organization for home care in and around Brussels. In addition to her job, she is passionate about surfing and art.

As a teenager, I wanted to become a restaurateur, so I went to art school. But in my last year, my mother got cancer. I visited her often in the hospital, and there I saw how nursing is an incredibly beautiful profession.

My mother literally got better from the warmth and kindness of the nurses. That's when I made a click. I remember my parents being worried if I had enough knowledge to start studying nursing. But nothing could stop me. I enrolled, and a week later, my mom died. It sounds half-soft, but somewhere I think it was meant to be. I always carry her with me in my work.

In 2017, I started "Wheel of Care," my own home care practice. I had already gained experience as a nurse in a hospital, but the pace is so high that you barely have time for the patient, let alone the person behind the patient. When I came back from a mission in Africa, I didn't see myself working full-time in a hospital again. After a long period of brainstorming, self-study, and crowdfunding, "Wheel of Care" came to life. We started with two, a fellow student and myself, and now we are twenty. Not full-time, but still.

What sets us apart from other practices is our strong ecological mindset. We always move around by bike, an electric one, to be precise (laughs). With the motto: "slow care on a fast bike."

All the time we save by not being stuck in traffic or looking for parking spaces, we gladly give to our patients. We want to create a bond with them; they are almost like family. Furthermore, we also work with reusable materials as much as possible, and we sensitize our patients to ecological awareness.

For example, we organize free workshops where we give parents tips on how to raise their baby in an ecologically responsible way. It often lies in small things like not using disposable diapers, but we notice that we make a difference.

Yes, I have very long days. I also work part-time at Sint Jan Hospital in dialysis, and I am responsible for managing "Wheel of Care." But I have not regretted it for a moment. I loooove my job!

You know, I visit Brussels residents from all walks of life, from very vulnerable families crammed into a small studio to Eurocrats with gigantic children's rooms. I used to walk past those facades, now I see what's behind them. Super interesting! We are also often the psychologist on duty.

There is still a lot of isolation in the big city, take it from me. In a whole week, we are sometimes the only contact for countless elderly people in Brussels, heartbreaking. I think that's why "Wheel of Care" is growing. There is simply a lot of need in our society for human warmth and attention. We have gradually lost that. I now often make a point of saying hello to strangers on the street. (shouts) Bonjour!! (laughs)

What do I wish for Brussels? Hmm, recently I heard a Danish sociologist say that Brussels is a "Jackson Pollock" for the weak road user. He wished us more "Mondrian." That's exactly what I think. I believe Brussels urgently needs more peace and structure.

For example, when I see how some sidewalks are, and think of those mothers who have to pass with their strollers, it's really sad..No wonder so many young families are leaving the city. There is too much chaos, stress, road rage... But be careful, I am a true Brussels native, you know. I just often think: come on Brussels! I love you, but now it's time to step up.

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