About D'Ligue

The Ligue Luxembourgeoise d’Hygiène Mentale, or d’Ligue was founded in 1956 on the initiative of a number of mental health professionals. It was the first outpatient psychiatric structure in the country. Its mission is to study mental hygiene issues and to raise awareness of mental health issues in the community using all means of communication. D'Ligue also aims to take care of persons suffering from mental and/or psychological disorders and to facilitate accommodation for its patients. It sets up outpatient structures for multidisciplinary treatment and/or psychosocial rehabilitation, and also works toward cooperation with other national and/or foreign structures pursuing the same aims, with the aim of fostering networking.

Apolitical and non-confessional, d'Ligue has remained faithful to humanist values and strong ideas. From its very beginnings, it adopted a community-based approach aimed at keeping psychiatric patients close to the community, thus putting an end to the practice of removing patients to a psychiatric hospital, as was the case in the 1960s and 1970s. Since mental illness often drains patients’ financial resources, d'Ligue has also remained faithful to the adoption of high-quality care, free and accessible to all. Finally, it has always taken care to provide a multidisciplinary framework outside the hospital.

D'Ligue currently has three main areas of activity:

1. Integration

Integration is achieved by means of therapeutic housing, i.e. the provision of accommodation with the support of a care team for people with a mental health issue. The aim of this support is to achieve a sufficient level of autonomy for the person to eventually live alone, improve their quality of life, avoid isolation and promote their social inclusion.

Integration is also achieved through employment, i.e. supporting people who are mentally vulnerable and/or mentally ill in finding and maintaining a job or activity.

Finally, it is also achieved through leisure, i.e. by social contact between people suffering from mental disorders in order to rebuild social links. Cultural and sporting activities are offered to beneficiaries.

2. Treatment

The purpose of treatment is to offer free individual psychotherapeutic consultations, in groups or one-to-one, to people suffering from mental disorders. The target group for care includes adult patients, their families and businesses.

This area also includes a day centre, with tasks covering training and the development of social skills, the structuring of time and space, the management of symptoms, physical and cognitive remobilisation and creativity.

3. Information and prevention

The aim of information and prevention is to communicate, to provide mental health training, to support families, to foster collaboration between support structures and to develop preventive actions with a high added value. These actions aim to combat stigmatisation by raising the awareness of the whole community to better understand mental disorders, their treatment and the organisation of care. They are aimed at the people concerned (patients, their families, and those around them) as well as mental health professionals, elected officials, journalists, etc.

There are six aspects to information and prevention:

1. information and guidance on mental illness, suicide prevention and workplace stress. This is done through drawing up and distributing brochures on these subjects, through the creation of websites and interactive media, through having psychologists available via a helpline and through consultations for those close to the patient or for co-workers;
2. communication via the national media and through suicide prevention days and mental health promotion days. There is also communication during global campaign days for suicide prevention, mental health, depression, etc.;
3. training for professionals and all others involved. Currently, the training offered is aimed at intervention in the event of a suicide crisis, working with depressive patients, working with anxious patients and promoting healthy lifestyles for health professionals;
4. epidemiological analysis and evaluation of mental illnesses and suicidal behaviour;
5. networking through thematic working groups and through team supervision and intervision (peer review), particularly for participants in training organised as part of information and prevention;
6. development of national prevention strategies. The information and prevention area has coordinated work on drawing up the national suicide prevention plan, which it has managed since 2015.