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| NATIONAL DELEGATE
Sophie Recchia
Research Unit INSIDE
University of Luxembourg
Route de Diekirch
L-7220 Walferdange (Luxembourg)
tel.: +352 46 66 44 6256
e-mail: sophie.recchia@uni.lu
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Health Psychology is still a very young scientific discipline in Luxembourg. To date no Health Psychology Association exists in Luxembourg; therefore members of the Luxembourg Society of Psychology are invited to contact the national representative of the EHPS. Psychology training is delivered by the Université du Luxembourg (UdL). The UdL was founded in 2003, is multilingual (lectures are held in English, French and/or German) and strongly focused on research. The UdL offers a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, as well as a Master of Science on Evaluation and Assessment. The research field of Health Psychology is rapidly developing through past and ongoing studies. Since February 2010, the University of Luxembourg holds a chair in Health and Clinical Psychology. |
National associations
The Luxembourg Psychological Society (SLP) represents the plurality of graduate psychologists and psychological psychotherapists in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The SLP was founded in 1985 and is, since 2001, an official member of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA). The objectives of the SLP are to promote the psychological discipline in its various sectors, to defend the professional interests of psychologists and to promote scientific research in the field of psychology. Over and above that, SLP edits the Luxembourg Directory of Certified Psychologists (PSYLUX, http://www.slp.lu/psylux/index.php), updates psychology related information on the SLP’s webpage (http://www.slp.lu) and reviews the current status of psychotherapeutical practice in Luxembourg.
SLP supports task forces, standing committees and national representatives, who undertake specified activities, considered of priority and importance to the promotion of psychology as a discipline. On the national level, active members of the SLP coordinate the standing committee on Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, the network of Neuropsychologists and the piloting committee of the Bachelor programme in Psychology at the University of Luxembourg. Beyond that, national delegates represent Luxembourg in the following international networks; the EuroPsy Task Force, the European standing committee on Disaster and Crisis Psychology, the European standing committee on Traffic Psychology, the task force on Geropsychology, the network of European psychologists in the Educational System and finally, the European Health Psychology Society.
Luxembourg does not have yet a Health Psychology association, but the SLP members are invited to contact the national representative of the EHPS. Actually, 21 SLP’ members are active in the field of Health Psychology. |
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Education, training & professionalisation
Psychology training is delivered by the Université du Luxembourg (UdL). The UdL was founded in 2003, is multilingual (lectures are held in English, French and/or German) and strongly focused on research. In the field of psychology, the UdL offers a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, as well as a Master of Science on Evaluation and Assessment. Since February 2010, the University of Luxembourg holds a chair in Health and Clinical Psychology under the direction of Professor Claus Vögele. PhD theses with Health Psychology topics have already been defended and are actually in preparation at the UdL. In a near future, new master programs will be developed, especially in the field of palliative care as well as in the domain of Health and Clinical Psychology.
In Luxembourg, the title of academically qualified psychologists is protected by a special law on protection of higher-education degrees, stating that academic titles have to be officially registered before. Registration implies an application addressed to the national Commission of Higher Education Titles, which deliberates on the acceptance of the title and assigns the entitlement for its use.
The practice of psychology in the Grand-duchy of Luxembourg is not regulated in a generic way, but only by specific laws and regulations in the context of different sectors of the public institutional system by determining basic qualifications of psychologists for appointment to the public service. |
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Research
The research unit INSIDE (INtegrative research unit on Social and Individual DEvelopment) of the University of Luxembourg is active in the field of Health Psychology. INSIDE is an interdisciplinary research unit comprising researchers from psychology, sociology, educational sciences, and social work dedicated to the study of individual and social development in times of rapid social change.
Past and ongoing projects:
• Altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function and pain processing International research training group (in collaboration with the universities of Trier and Leiden; started in 2007)
• Burnout of caregivers (started in 2008 and founded by UdL)
• Caring for the Elderly in Luxembourg: On the Psychosocial Situation of Family Careers (started in 2007 and financed by the UdL)
• Content materials to raise employability and reinforce skills of carers - CARERS: Leonardo Da Vinci- Lifelong Learning Programm2 (started in 2007 with partners; Spain, France, Austria, Lithuania, Poland)
• Evaluation of a parental training offered to young mothers in the city of Differdange (started in 2009 and funded by the city of Differdange)
• Evaluation of the program EQUAL-RESET “Economic and Social Reintegration by Education and Work” (financed by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Labour and Employment)
• Improving health behaviours in early childhood: The TigerKids Programme (funded by the EU)
• TIVIPOL Project - Information technologies to accompany the aging population in Luxembourg (in collaboration with the Research Center Gabriel Lippmann and funded by the National Research Fund of Luxembourg)
• Life after an Cerebral vascular accident: family repercussion and quality of life. Equity of access to the care and the social resources (funded by the National Research Fund of Luxembourg)
• Modernizing of Training Courses for Oncology Service in Omsk Region TEMPUS-TACIS (started in 2007 in collaboration with the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg I, the Omsk State Medical Academy, the Cancer Research Center, the Ministry of Health of the Omsk Region and the Omsk Reginal Oncology Center)
• Quality of life and self care of patients with type I diabetes (MONDIAB research project)
• Self-regulation, visceral integration and frontal inhibition (supported by a scholarship from the Norwegian Government)
• Sex and the brain (in collaboration with the universities of Amsterdam, Gent, Glasgow, Hamburg and Luxemburg)
• Stress, eating and addiction (part of a consortium of European partners)
• Students' Quality of Life and Employability Skills (in collaboration with the universities of Liège and Nancy)
• The role of stress and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in the enhancement and maintenance of pain – neurobiological elucidation of mechanisms in animal studies (Started in 2005)
• The role of the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis in the enhancement and maintenance of pain – experimental and clinical studies in human subjects (Started in 2005)
Organization of conferences
In 2008-2009 a series of lectures on health promotion was organized by a joint cooperation of the CRP-Santé (Centre de Recherche Public - Health Research Institute), the Ministry of Health and the University of Luxembourg. The series of lectures entitled ‘Health Promotion: Risk and preventive factors’ was hold during the summer semester 2008 and the winter semester 2009. The main topic of these series of lectures was health promotion in various contexts and at different ages. Five keynote speakers exposed their findings and prevention/research programs covering the field of youth’s health by Prof. J.-P. Deschamps (University of Nancy), cognitive disabilities of older people by Prof. R.W. Kressig (University of Basel), self-regulation and chronic illnesses by Prof. S. Maes (University of Leiden), precarious nutrition by Prof. S. Hercberg (University of Paris) and migrants’ health by E. Aïna and Dr. A. Veisse (national institute for prevention and health education; medical committee for exiles). These series of lectures promoted the exchange of national actors and experts in respective research domains. This project was a joint cooperation of the CRP-Santé and the University of Luxembourg and was founded by the Fonds National de la Recherche.
The Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychooncology (ICPO) is organized on a biannual basis within the research unit INSIDE in collaboration with the Luxembourg Cancer Foundation (FLCC), the Luxembourg Society of Psychology (SLP) and the Ministry of Health. The conference addresses primarily researchers and health care practitioners (i.e. physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers) and provides a platform for knowledge exchange and reinforcement of the interdisciplinary collaboration in psychooncology research in Luxembourg. A first ICPO took place in 2007 covering the topics of psychoetiology of cancer, illness perceptions, relaxation methods, cancer pain, braking bad news, psychological screening methods, and psychological interventions to deal with existential fears. The second conference in 2009 was titled “Living on with and after cancer” and addressed research issues and evidence based practical interventions in the fields of psychooncological care and rehabilitation. |
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Report 2010/2011
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