Can colourful uniforms make Leuven’s care homes feel more like home?
Zorg Leuven has replaced traditional white service clothing in its residential care homes with blue, red and turquoise uniforms, seeking a less clinical atmosphere while retaining professional clothing and hygiene safeguards.
Residents do not merely receive treatment in a care home; they live there. Uniforms can shape how institutional, approachable or reassuring daily contact feels, although residents may differ over whether colour or traditional white best communicates trust.
has begun replacing white service clothing with blue, red and turquoise uniforms across its residential care homes in , reported on 25 August. The public care organisation says the change should create “less of a hospital atmosphere” for residents while allowing employees to remain recognisable at work.
For residents, relatives and staff, this is more than a wardrobe update. Residential care homes are both places of intensive care and people’s permanent homes, so everyday design choices can influence whether the setting feels institutional or domestic. ’s decision addresses that tension directly: colour softens the clinical image, while standard workwear still distinguishes employees from visitors.
The organisation operates four residential care homes, according to its own public communications. Its new approach reflects a wider shift in Flemish elder care towards quality of life, personal relationships and resident participation alongside medical safety. A 2025 survey commissioned by the Flemish government found that 40% of participating residents rarely or never felt a personal bond with staff. The survey involved more than 8,000 residents in over 400 care homes and prompted Flemish Welfare Minister Caroline Gennez to stress that residents and relatives must be heard when institutions assess quality.
Clothing cannot resolve loneliness or staffing pressures, but it forms part of the daily social language of a care home. White has long signalled cleanliness, expertise and authority in European medicine; it can also evoke examinations, illness and hospital stays. Red, blue or turquoise woonzorgcentra clothing may make an encounter feel less clinical, particularly where employees help residents eat, dress or take part in communal activities.
There is nevertheless no simple scientific verdict that abandoning white automatically improves residents’ experience. A peer-reviewed study involving 92 residents and workers in Dutch nursing homes found that residents most often preferred a professional white jacket worn with jeans. Casual clothing ranked lowest. The researchers argued that institutions should ask residents directly and ensure any chosen clothing meets infection-control requirements. That evidence provides an important counterweight to the assumption that staff and residents necessarily understand “homeliness” in the same way.
Flemish hygiene guidance leaves room for different colours but not for relaxed standards. The Department of Care says employees must wear short-sleeved work clothing during care, change it every shift or when visibly soiled, keep it at the workplace and have it correctly laundered by the employer. Colour, in other words, is primarily a question of atmosphere and identification; fabric use, sleeve length and laundering determine whether the uniform meets infection-prevention expectations.
That distinction also separates the care-home experiment from nearby . The university hospital explained in May that its uniforms remain strongly role-coded: nurses generally wear white, logistics employees wear white with dark-blue sleeves, and operating-theatre staff wear green. A hospital prioritises rapid professional identification in a high-intensity clinical environment. A residential care home must combine that requirement with the rhythms of ordinary domestic life.
The immediate test for will therefore be practical rather than symbolic: whether residents can recognise who is helping them, whether employees find the garments comfortable, and whether the promised reduction in hospital atmosphere is felt by the people who live there. The organisation has not yet published a resident evaluation, cost breakdown or timetable for reviewing the uniforms. Those are the measures to watch once the coloured clothing has become part of daily life.
Impact
Regional — The change directly affects Zorg Leuven residents, relatives and employees and may inform similar debates in other Flemish residential care homes.
Local — The change directly affects residents, relatives and employees in Zorg Leuven’s residential care homes in Leuven. Staff will be encountered in blue, red or turquoise rather than traditional white service clothing, changing a familiar visual feature of everyday care. The hygiene rules governing workwear remain in place. Families and residents may want clarification on whether colours identify particular roles and how feedback will be collected. Any future evaluation could also provide useful evidence for other residential care providers in Leuven and elsewhere in Flanders.
What it means for you
Residents and visitors to Zorg Leuven care homes should expect staff to wear blue, red or turquoise uniforms instead of white service clothing. The change does not remove Flemish hygiene safeguards: workwear should have short sleeves, be changed every shift or when soiled, remain at the workplace and be laundered under employer control. Residents or relatives who find roles harder to identify can ask the home whether colours correspond to particular teams or functions. Anyone assessing the policy’s success should note that Zorg Leuven has not published resident-experience results, so claims of improved comfort remain unverified.
Opposing perspectives
- Zorg Leuven’s home-like-care perspective
Zorg Leuven presents the move away from white as a way to reduce the hospital atmosphere in places that are residents’ homes. Coloured professional clothing seeks to preserve staff recognition while making everyday contact feel warmer and less clinical.
- Dutch resident-preference researchers
Researchers studying 92 nursing-home residents and employees found that residents most often chose a professional white jacket with jeans. Their findings caution providers against assuming informal-looking clothing is universally more reassuring and support consulting residents directly.
- Flemish infection-prevention authorities
The Flemish Department of Care does not prescribe white as the essential safeguard. Its guidance instead concentrates on short sleeves, clean clothing for each shift, replacement after visible soiling, workplace-only use and laundering organised by the employer.
Who, where and what
Key people, places and terms in this story
Flemish city where the affected Zorg Leuven residential care homes are located.
Belgian region whose care guidance governs hygiene requirements for employee workwear.
Belgian public-service news outlet reporting Zorg Leuven’s uniform change.
Regional authority providing hygiene guidance for staff clothing in care settings.
The 2025 survey cited for findings about residents’ personal bond with staff.
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Flemish city where the affected Zorg Leuven residential care homes are located.
Belgian region whose care guidance governs hygiene requirements for employee workwear.
The 2025 survey cited for findings about residents’ personal bond with staff.
Workwear rules requiring short sleeves, regular changing, workplace-only use and employer-controlled laundering.
Regional authority providing hygiene guidance for staff clothing in care settings.
Belgian public-service news outlet reporting Zorg Leuven’s uniform change.
Public welfare association replacing white service clothing with coloured uniforms in its residential care homes.
Academic journal publishing the cited study of nursing-home residents’ attire preferences.
Leuven university hospital cited for contextual information about identifying healthcare workers.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceVRT NWS — Blauw, rood of turkoois: woonzorgcentra Zorg Leuven nemen afscheid van witte dienstkledijPrimaryprimary· vrtnws.be· 25 August 2026Retrieved 25 August 2026· 38 days ago· Dated
- View sourceFlemish Department of Care — Persoonlijke hygiëne van de medewerkerofficial· departementzorg.beRetrieved 25 August 2026
- View sourceFlemish residential-care quality survey — Resultsofficial· kwaliteitsbevraging.be· 18 June 2025Retrieved 25 August 2026· 471 days ago· Dated
- View sourceAntimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control — Preferences for healthcare worker attire among nursing-home residentsacademic· pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov· 5 December 2022Retrieved 25 August 2026· 1397 days ago· Dated
Related topics
Related to this story
Pulse Insight — This topic connects to 10 associations and 2 funding programmes through the Flanders ecosystem.
Live connections from the Belgium Impulse ecosystem — not recommendations.
This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.