This afternoon, during a symposium in the Mare church in Leiden celebrating his retirement, director of Leyden Academy Professor Joris Slaets received a royal decoration. He was awarded the grade of Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Marleen Damen, deputy mayor of Leiden. This honour is only awarded on the basis of special, personal merits for society.
In his clinical and academic career as a Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Groningen (since 1998) and as executive director of knowledge institute Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing (since 2015), Professor Slaets was always committed to making positive changes in healthcare for the frail elderly. He aimed to shift the focus from disease and symptoms, to the personal wishes and desires of older people. Slaets’ conviction is that radical medical interventions should be kept to a minimum in the final phase of life. With research and field experiments during his years at Leyden Academy, Slaets and his team contributed to integrating enjoying life and compassionate long-term care into current practice where strict sytems, protocols and normative frameworks are still dominant.
As of 1 December 2019, Slaets will retire as director of Leyden Acadamy. His successor is Tineke Abma, professor of Participation & Diversity at Amsterdam UMC.
If you have any questions, please contact Niels Bartels by phone: +31 (0)6 34614817 or by email.