Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2023

This report summarizes the activities of CHS for the year to 31 December 2023. It includes a review of the activities of our two principal services, namely the Helpline and the Mental Health Services Centre. It also looks at other important aspects of our activities during the year including our financial results and our governance review

The Helpline

The Helpline ended the year with 32 volunteers, one of the highest levels for many years. This has helped to ease the burden of handling calls, especially given the increasing number of suicide-related calls which the Helpline takes and which can be particularly difficult for the Helpline volunteers.

We continue to use the UK Samaritans training materials which are excellent. The basic training is supplemented with regular training and refresher courses on topics of interest or relevance as and when a specific need is identified by our two professional supervisors, Chana Schneps and Simon Dwyer. Our ongoing relationship with Google, where suicide-related searches drive a link to the Helpline phone number, has increased the need for regular suicide training but a range of other issues have also been addressed such as dementia, euthanasia, LGBTQ plus and dealing with cancer.

In terms of activity, based on data collected by Destiny, our telecommunication provider, there were 4,860 calls taken by volunteers during 2023, an 11% reduction over 2022. A large part of this reduction is due to a significant reduction in calls from a limited number of regular callers for whom the Helpline is more of a lifeline. A better measure of activity is the amount of time spent by volunteers in talking to callers. In 2023, this came to a total of 1,084 hours which is a 5% increase over 2022 despite the reduction in call numbers.

Roughly 75% of all calls to the Helpline are made from mobile phones. Whilst there is nothing remarkable in this statistic, we know from experience that the quality of a call is also dependent on the strength of the mobile signal at the location of the caller. In the early days of using the new Destiny system, there was a tendency to attribute poor call quality to the new system which was not always the case.

There were 2,197 unique callers to the Helpline in 2023, a 33% increase over 2022. It is encouraging to see more people accessing the line, in part due to the reduction in calls from our regular callers who can monopolize the line to the detriment of others. That said, there were still 1,730 calls to the line that could not be taken because the on-duty volunteer was already talking to another caller. Whilst this is a 12% reduction over 2022, it is still high and may warrant closer scrutiny in 2024.  

Despite being a service provided in English, our Helpline continues to attract non-native speakers both within Belgium and located in other countries. Roughly 7% of calls in 2023 were received from non-Belgian phone numbers, a slight increase over 2022. Whilst the use of a foreign number does not necessarily mean that the caller is calling from that country, anecdotal evidence from discussions amongst the volunteer group confirm that the CHS Helpline is more than a national service. It is a tribute to all our Helpline volunteers that they have continued to support not only our community here in Belgium but an increasing number of callers from outside Belgium.

The Mental Health Services Centre (MHSC)

Over the past year, notwithstanding some recent challenges, the MHSC has been able to focus its attention on doing what it does best – providing top quality mental health service to the international community in Belgium. Intakes for the year totalled 1,056 (2022: 1,155) of which 46% (2022: 57%) led to appointments in the CHS offices and a further 10% were taken over by the private practices of CHS therapists. Whilst referrals to non-CHS practitioners are slightly higher than the previous year, the significant demand for psychiatric services coupled with limited availability of our own psychiatrists meant that the CHS office had to stop taking (and recording requests) to see a CHS psychiatrist. Such requests were automatically referred out to external psychiatrists.   

At the end of the year, the Clinical Team numbered 18 therapists with one of our psychologists, Linnea Hook, away on maternity leave. However, we have two new therapists in the pipeline, one of whom is a psychiatrist, who we expect to start working in early 2024. We also have a further four Affiliated Professionals who offer complementary services. These include a dietician, a mindfulness coach and a family mediator. During the year we welcomed Emily Riley to our team. Emily is a certified career and orientation coach. However, we are always on the look out to expand the diverse services we can offer. A new Affiliated Professional who is a certified Yoga Therapist with a focus on mental health, started at the Centre in February 2024.

Following the advice of the CHS Governance Working Group, the role of Clinical Director has been replaced with a Clinical Directorate of up to three therapists, each of whom become Ex Officio members of the CHS Council and also members of the smaller CHS Executive Committee. The Clinical Directorate is responsible, inter alia, for the operations of the entire Clinical Team including professional and regulatory compliance. From January 2024, this role is now paid which reflects the importance which the CHS Council places on regulatory compliance and oversight including issues such as GDPR and the move toward Electronic Patient Records being maintained by the individual clinician.

At the meeting of the CHS Council in December 2023, a revised set of Internal Rules were reviewed for adoption by the Clinical Team. This was another element of our Governance review. In addition to the creation of the new Clinical Directorate, the CHS Council agreed to remove oversight of the Helpline from one of their responsibilities as this is already being performed by two paid Helpline supervisors. Our lawyers had also stressed the importance of keeping separate the activities of the Helpline and the MHSC, albeit with common oversight exercised by the CHS Council. 

We also deleted the long-standing but rarely used Weekly Duty Officer function where one member of the Clinical Team was available “on call” to assist Helpline volunteers. As a better alternative, members of the Clinical Team will routinely present themselves and their respective areas of specialisation to all Helpline volunteers at the regular Helpline meetings.

The MHSC continues to function well thanks to the excellent work of the Office volunteers who handle requests for a first appointment at the Centre, as well as taking care of the many other tasks essential to the smooth running of the organisation. 2023 was a year of reflection and consolidation. The MHSC is now well placed to focus on the ever-increasing mental health challenges that lie ahead.

Financial Results

In recent years, CHS has consistently reported an operating surplus although 2023 sees this positive trend coming to an end. It is also worth noting that our surpluses have been getting smaller year on year and 2024 will prove to be much more challenging. It is for this reason that the CHS Council established a new working group in December 2023 to look at the twin objectives of fundraising and increasing awareness of the CHS Helpline.

The deficit for 2023 was €204, effectively a break-even situation. Whilst this is a significant reduction over 2022, this was largely anticipated and is actually better than budget by roughly €3,600.

A brief summary is shown in the table below:

In terms of our income, we were under by roughly €8,500. The majority of this variance was the result of a decision by the CHS Council to not index the amounts due from therapists to reflect the impact of inflation. There has been the perception that these charges were out of line with the market. In addition, the Council agreed not to apply indexation in 2024 but will start again with effect from 1 January 2025.

The other income shortfall relates to our website and calendar sponsorship, both of which are lower than prior years. This will be an area of focus for our newly established fundraising working group.

On a more positive note, our expenditure for 2023 was nearly €12,500 better than budget. We saw savings across all expense headings, partly due to over prudent budgeting but also as energy costs stabilized after the hiatus in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.

Other matters

(a) Governance

A major focus in 2023, as mentioned elsewhere in this report, has been on the way we govern ourselves. The first task of our Governance Working Group was to look at the CHS statutes. In any event, these needed to be updated to reflect recent changes to the laws governing an ASBL, but it was also a good opportunity to change some practices which seemed a little out of date.

One of the most important changes that was adopted at the Annual General Meeting in June 2023 was to redefine who is a member of CHS. In the past, only members of the Board were members of CHS. This resulted in a strange situation where the Board approved the annual financial statements at a regular meeting and then held an Annual General Meeting to go through exactly the same process. The new Statutes define a member of CHS as any member of the CHS family – office volunteers, Helpline volunteers, Clinical Team members and Affiliated Members – subject to some time-related requirements. All of these individuals will be entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting. This will create some added accountability for former Board members who will now become members of the newly-named CHS Council.

A second important change was to expand the number of representatives on the Council from the Helpline and Clinical Team. These have been increased from one to three, respectively. From the Clinical Team, all three members of the newly created Clinical Directorate become Ex Officio members of Council as well as the smaller Executive Committee, albeit on a rotating basis. From the Helpline, the existing Representative to Council will be joined by the two Helpline Supervisors. However, as these individuals are effectively paid consultants to CHS, only the Helpline Representative to Council will be a member of the Executive Committee in order to be able to exercise some independent oversight of their performance.

Having adopted revised Internal Rules for the Clinical Team, the last remaining task of the Governance Working Group will be to update Job Descriptions for some of the most important roles within the organization.

(b) Domain and Website updates

Following the tragic death of a long-standing supporter of CHS, Jan Taljaard from Pelican Dream, we realised that hosting of the CHS domain name needed to be transferred to a new host. Under the circumstances, this was not without its challenges. However, with the support of Jan’s widow and another CHS supporter, Pierre Van Goethem, we were able to make this change.

A similar issue arose with the CHS website. For many years we have been using Joomla software as the basis for maintaining the website. However, this software was becoming obsolete making it almost impossible for us to make changes to the content of our website. With the support of Pierre Van Goethem and an external web consultant, Malvina Reyns, we have successfully transferred the old CHS website onto the WordPress platform.

Neither of these changes could have been accomplished without the dedicated support of our team of Office volunteers.  

(c) CHS 2024 Calendar Under the inspiring leadership of my predecessor, Geoff Brown, and his team of helpers the 2024 CHS Calendar saw the light of day in the Autumn of this year. I was delighted to see another painting from a St John’s International student appearing on the cover of the Calendar. Regrettably, for financial reasons, ING decided to stop sponsoring the printing costs of the calendar. As such, the 2024 calendar has now become a net cost to CHS rather than a provider of net income.

Conclusion

2023 has been a year of positive change and improvement to the way CHS operates on a daily basis. Our finances are sound and our operational practices have been upgraded. The Helpline has the strongest volunteer base we have seen for many years and the professionalism with which they manage the Helpline service, under guidance from the two Supervisors is remarkable.

The Mental Health Services Centre continues to perform well and is extremely busy. Nevertheless, the atmosphere within the team is excellent. Our thanks to Vanessa Goodman and Marta Noordhoek for taking over the heavy mantle of the Clinical Directorate role. With a new psychiatrist and a new psychologist joining the team, we are confident that we can better handle the ever-increasing demand for our services.  

My thanks to the entire CHS family, as always, for everything they do to support our community here in Belgium and beyond, and to our many donors and sponsors without whose generous support we would not be able to do what we do.

Jeremy Jennings

President – June 2024

Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2022

This report summarizes the activities of the CHS for the year to 31 December 2022. It includes a review of the activities of our two principal services, namely the Helpline and the Mental Health Services Centre. However, it also looks at other equally important aspects of the CHS, notably the running of our Offices in Avenue des Phalènes, as well as our financial results and publicity activities.

This year saw a long-awaited return to near normal. Although the COVID pandemic is still with us, it seems as though people have learned to live with it. The impact of this on our daily life at CHS has reduced the burden of having to clean rooms after each use and it is nice to be able to walk around the CHS building without having to wear a mask. However, we are now sensitized to the risks of infection (not just from COVID) and have acquired an Air Quality monitor in the main office to ensure that CO2 levels do not get out of control. It is a credit to our office volunteers that we have been able to continue to provide services to our community throughout the pandemic.

The Helpline

This has been the first full year of using the Destiny system and whilst not without its challenges, we have made good progress in understanding the main issues and how to correct them before they manifest themselves as problems. The Destiny Fleet application now enables us, on a real-time basis, to check that volunteers have not inadvertently logged themselves out of the system or taken themselves out of the “office” both of which caused phones not to ring.

We are very appreciative of the work of our colleague, Claudia Dumitrescu, who has developed an automated system which takes the weekly Destiny call logs, analyses the data and then populates a series of management reports. This automated process has removed the need for volunteers to manually capture statistics and has the potential to save a significant amount of effort in the future. That said, the Destiny call data cannot capture the essence of a call (i.e., information, support or distress) so we will need to reflect on this point to ensure that valuable trends and insights are not overlooked.

During 2022, the Helpline received around 7,500 incoming calls. This number excludes callers who hang up before speaking to a volunteer. It also excludes calls from a tiny number of callers who, on occasion, can call excessively and have to be temporarily blocked so as to allow other callers to get through to a volunteer. Whilst we aim to provide a full 24-hour service, 7 days a week, there are times when a volunteer is unavailable, especially during the summer holiday months. On other occasions, our volunteers are busy talking to another caller. After taking these factors into account, our volunteers took roughly 5,500 calls in 2022 and spoke for a duration in excess of 1,000 hours. Whilst call numbers are slightly lower than 2021, given the changeover to Destiny in October 2021, the two sets of data are not fully comparable.

We ended the year with a total of 28 volunteers including 4 in training. Whilst we would always like to have more volunteers, this is more than we have had in each of the previous four years. During the year all new volunteers (as well as a group of more experienced “mentor” volunteers) have gone through the Samaritans On-line Core Development Training Programme which is an excellent resource. The Samaritans training is supplemented by ad hoc sessions arranged by our two Helpline Supervisors, Chana Schneps and Simon Dwyer, which help to focus on specific trends that we see in the types of calls to the Helpline.

We continue to see increases in the number of suicide-related calls to the line, a trend that started during the COVID pandemic but which seems to be accelerating. To some extent this is due to an arrangement with Google who have elevated the profile of the CHS Helpline when people use suicide-related search criteria. This came into effect in May 2022 and also triggered a significant increase in the number of visitors to the CHS website.

It is a tribute to all our Helpline volunteers that they have continued to support not only our community here in Belgium but an increasing number of callers from outside Belgium.   

The Mental Health Services Centre (MHSC)

The MHSC has had another busy year, although intake numbers at 1,155 are lower than the record set in 2021 of 1,402 intakes. Nevertheless, these numbers are impressive and have continued to put strain on all our therapists as well as our office volunteers. As the MHSC continues to operate at full capacity, it is not possible for us to accommodate numbers of this magnitude. Accordingly, roughly 43% of all intakes had to be referred out to other medical practitioners during the year, a slight decrease over 2021 (45%).

At the end of the year, the Clinical Team numbered 19 therapists, the same as this time last year, although this has been impacted by some recent departures. We are sad to say farewell to Lara Brandel and Alessia Ciani who have both been with us for many years, but there are several applications in the pipeline and we will soon be back to full capacity. We also have a further 3 Affiliated Members who offer complementary services such as a dietician, a mindfulness coach and a family mediator. We are always on the look out to expand the diverse services we can offer.

During the year our Clinical Director decided to stand down for personal reasons. The role of Clinical Director is an onerous one and is on a voluntary basis. We will be looking at this issue as a priority for 2023. The remaining Clinical Directorate team of Berta Figueras and Nikki Josephson have recently been joined by Vanessa Goodman and between them they have done an excellent job to ensure the smooth running of the MHSC, especially given the increased regulatory challenges of GDPR compliance and, more recently, a requirement for all psychiatrists to maintain Electronic Patient Records (EPR) which might expand to include clinical psychologists as well.

To address the above challenges, we have established two Working Groups. One has been looking at the related issues of GDPR and EPR, the other has been looking at Governance of the entire organization, not just the way in which we manage the Clinical Team. By the end of the year CHS was on the point of signing a software licence with CGM for their Daktari EPR software. As an initial step our four psychiatrists as well as the CHS Office will use the software. Our clinical psychologists are likely also to subscribe pending the outcome of discussions within their professional regulatory body. The Governance Working Group will not conclude its discussions before the New Year but I am encouraged by the progress they are making.

Financial Results

The last three years have seen the CHS maintaining a surplus and, despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have been able to generate another surplus in 2022 of €12,403. Whilst smaller than our 2021 surplus of €22,767, this year’s result is better than budget by nearly €4,000.

A brief summary is shown in the table below:

The Mental Health Services Centre continued to perform well during the year. Whilst expenditure is considerably higher than in 2021, this was largely anticipated. Our total expenditure for 2022 was in line with our budget as were the respective costs for the MHSC and Helpline. Inevitably, utility and property costs are the principal culprits for these increases although we have also seen some one-off expenditure during the year associated with our plan to adopt the CGM Daktari software.

The Helpline showed a small surplus this year thanks to a healthy increase in donations. We received our first foreign donation through Transnational Giving Europe (TGE) of over €11,000. This was a wonderful surprise (albeit sourced by two of our former Board members) and validates all the efforts put in to be accepted by TGE as an organization to which donations made through TGE will qualify for tax relief in the donor’s home country.

Despite seeing a return to normal life post COVID, our event income has yet to pick up to the levels seen pre-pandemic. We repeated our 50KM walk again in 2022 but didn’t achieve the same level of contribution as in 2021. We will reflect on this and tweak our formula for 2023! Although not reflected in this year’s results because donations are treated on a cash basis, December 2022 was an excellent month with over €7,000 of donations coming in through the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and the Brussels British Community Association. Our thanks to these two long-time supporters who have made sure that 2023 will start on an extremely positive note.

During the year we again drew down €15,000 (2021: €15,000) from the cumulative US Dollar and Euro funds held on our behalf by the King Baudouin Foundation. Although donations into these funds are received on a regular basis, they are only taken to income when physically received into the CHS bank account. As at 31 December 2022 there was approximately €40,760 (2021: €37,600) and US$10,936 (2021: US$5,936) still held by KBF and available for draw down in future years. Cash balances at 31 December 2022 are strong at just over €178,000 excluding our rental guarantee.

Other matters

At Board level we have seen a number of changes. We say farewell to Alessia Ciani and Marc Hansen and thank them both for their commitment to CHS. We also welcome Jonathan Murray, the current COO at the International School in Brussels (ISB) and Patrick Oliver, a retired lawyer with a wealth of Brussels-based experience, who both joined the Board before Christmas. We are all looking forward to working with them both in 2023.

As is the usual practice of the Clinical Directorate, both Nikki Josephson and Berta Figueras stood down from the Clinical Directorate at the end of 2022. It has been a great privilege to work with Nikki and Berta during a difficult year where they have both done more than their fair share of heavy lifting! We welcome Marta Nordhoek who joins the Directorate as from 1 January 2023 and she will work alongside Vanessa Goodman who has agreed to stay on. We hope another member of the Clinical Team will join Vanessa and Marta before too long.

It had been standard procedure for one of the Clinical Directorate to be elected as the CHS Clinical Director and join the CHS Board. As part of our Governance review, we will be considering alternative constructs that aim to improve clinical team engagement at Board level but also help spread the workload more evenly between members of the Clinical Directorate.

2022 saw yet another edition of the CHS calendar with a further increase in the number of copies printed. We also introduced our School Calendar Cover art competition this year following the inspirational painting by a student at St John’s International school that was our 2022 cover. We received an interesting variety of entries. In retrospect, our guidance to students was a little too abstract such that none of the entries were judged suitable for our calendar cover. However, the three best entrants were all featured in this year’s calendar. We will endeavour to be more clear next year! Our thanks, as always, to Geoff Brown and Victor Osweiler and their team of helpers in producing the 2023 calendar.

Conclusion

2022 has been another year of challenge but a year in which further progress has been made. We continue to enjoy a sound financial position, the Helpline has an increasing number of volunteers to cover the calls, and the statistical data we now collect from Destiny provides us with an opportunity for re-evaluating how we allocate our resources. Whilst 2022 was a difficult year for the Clinical Team, I am confident that we enter the New Year with a clear vision of what needs to be done to address the increasing regulatory burden that Mental Health practices now have to face.

My thanks to the entire CHS family, as always, for everything they do to support our community here in Belgium and beyond.

Jeremy Jennings

President – 17 April 2023

Chairman’s Report for the year ended 31 December 2020

This report summarizes the activities of the CHS for the year to 31 December 2020. It includes a review of the activities of our two principal services, namely the Helpline and the Mental Health Services Centre. However, it also looks at other equally important aspects of the CHS, notably the running of our office in Avenue des Phalènes, as well as our financial results and publicity activities.

2020 will long be remembered as the year of the COVID pandemic. The virus has impacted every aspect of our personal lives and, not surprisingly, has had an equally pervasive impact on the activities of the CHS. As we welcomed in the New Year, there was a sense that 2021 would be a better year than its predecessor. However, it is already clear that there is a long way to go before our lives can return to normal, despite the promise of vaccinations in the near future. At the time of writing, we have applied to the Minister of Health and Social Affairs to see if CHS can be recognized as part of the wider health system in Belgium. This would provide access to the accelerated vaccine system for our office volunteers and Clinical Team members who are still conducting personal sessions on a regular basis.

The CHS Office

Before commenting on our main services, it has never been more appropriate than now to say a few words about the CHS office.

All aspects of our activities are managed by our Office Administrator and the team of volunteers. Throughout the pandemic they have managed to keep our doors open, albeit on a partial basis, to provide much needed services to the community. Rigorous procedures have been established to ensure that all governmental guidelines are met – hand sanitizers, face masks, social distancing, office ventilation and regular cleaning of surfaces both to protect our own personnel and provide a safe environment for our clients. Most of this activity has been behind the scenes and largely invisible to the rest of us. On behalf of the entire CHS family, I would like to thank the team of volunteers for the tremendous efforts they have all made during this difficult time.

The Helpline

This has been a busy year for the Helpline, although total calls (including silent calls) of 4,471 are somewhat lower than the record of 5,515 last year. Some of this reduction can be attributed to the fact that a few regular callers are now limited to a specific number of calls per day, but most of the reduction is probably pandemic-related in some way.

Given the confidential and anonymous nature of the Helpline, the statistics we maintain on the calls we receive are relatively modest. However, of concern is the notable 62% increase in calls that are classified as “distress”. Whilst there are challenges in deciding when a call shifts from “Support” to “Distress”, calls involving self-harm and suicide will fall into this latter category.

Despite the pandemic, the Helpline has continued to function on a 24/7, free, confidential and anonymous basis throughout the year. Whatever the nature of a caller’s problem, a CHS volunteer (recruited, supervised and supported by two professionals from our Mental Health Services Team) has been available to listen sympathetically and provide emotional support and advice or helpful information. Inevitably, there are times when the Helpline answerphone has had to be turned on (e.g., during the holiday season when many volunteers are, themselves, away enjoying a well-earned rest). However, up-time during 2020 when the line has been actively managed by a volunteer was around 98%. This is an amazing achievement in what has been an exceptional year.

Looking to the future, with the prospect of a new phone system, we hope to be able to collect some additional, more informative call metrics such as call volume (i.e., length) or discrete callers (i.e., number of callers that eliminates multiple callers). Logistical issues with transferring the Helpline number from one volunteer to another should be simplified.

Another exciting development is our membership of Befrienders Worldwide, an umbrella organization bringing together over 340 independent emotional support centres in over 30 countries. Discussions are in progress with the UK Samaritans, another BW member, to secure access to their Core Development training programmes. This will undoubtedly enhance the quality of our existing training materials.

In my report last year, I mentioned some of the barriers we face in recruiting and retaining Helpline volunteers, the biggest of which was the need to attend physical meetings on a weekly basis. However, as the result of COVID, all such meetings have had to be held on Zoom. Whilst the benefits of face-to-face contact cannot be completely replaced by technology, it is evident to the CHS Board that weekly Zoom meetings are likely to become the rule, not the exception from now on. That said, we are in the process of installing state-of-the-art equipment in the CHS Offices that will enable hybrid meetings (i.e., part Zoom on screen, part face-to-face) to take place in the near future. We hope this will give us the best of both worlds.

We ended the year with a total of 26 Helpline volunteers, a 25% increase on last year despite having had to say goodbye to a number of our long-standing Helpline supporters who have moved on to other things. Our Helpline volunteers are all anonymous so I will not name names. Suffice it to say, our team of Helpline volunteers and their two Clinical Team supervisors do an amazing job and we are all indebted to them.

The Mental Health Services Centre

Given that the CHS offices have been operating with a reduced number of volunteers for a large part of the year due to the pandemic, the number of intakes this year of 1,054 is truly remarkable when compared to last year’s record-breaking year of 1,183. In line with our prior year experience, our intakes represented over 40 different nationalities, although the UK, USA, Belgium and Germany continue to account for the majority of these individuals. A slight increase in Belgian clients (with a corresponding reduction in UK nationals) may well be the result of Brexit as long-term expats obtain a second nationality.

These unprecedented levels of demand continue to place a certain amount of strain on the entire CHS team – therapists and office staff alike. Although total intakes are slightly lower than 2019, it seems that those that are currently seeing a therapist are staying longer in therapy than was the case before. As a result, the Clinical Team is working at full capacity and doing their very best to manage these intakes in-house rather than refer them to third party professionals.

During 2020, the Clinical Team has remained relatively stable with 18 therapists divided between the Children’s Team and the Adult’s Team. We also have four “Affiliated Members” who provide a range of complementary services (e.g., an Art Therapist, a Dietitian, a Family Mediator and a Global Health Coach). We hope to be able to add an Occupational Therapist to our team of Affiliated Members before long and we are looking for a psychiatrist for the Adult’s Team to replace a recent departure.

At the end of the year, the Clinical Team directorate of Lisa Classen, Marie-Thérèse Kastl and Chana Schneps stood down and have been replaced by Alessia Ciani, Berta Figueras and Nicole Josephson. On behalf of the CHS Board I would like to thank Lisa, Marie-Thérèse and Chana for their many years of service to the CHS family. I would also like to welcome the new team of Alessia Ciani, Berta Figueras and Nicole Josephson.

We are all grateful to the entire Clinical Team who, due to the pandemic, have been unable to use the CHS consulting rooms as frequently as they would have liked but who, nevertheless, have continued to provide crucial financial support to our ongoing activities.

Financial Results

The last two years have seen the CHS return to a surplus and, despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have been able to generate another surplus in 2020. Current indications are for a surplus of €18,880 compared to €23,762 in 2019. Having moved to an accruals basis of accounting in 2019, this year’s results fairly reflect our activities in 2020 and the income and expenditure arising therefrom.

A brief summary is shown in the table below:

The Mental Health Services Centre continued to perform strongly in 2020 although income levels were down largely due to a pandemic-related rebate given in May to compensate for the partial closure of the CHS offices. Costs were only slightly lower than the previous year, despite the lockdown, but this merely reflects the fact that the vast majority of MHSC costs are largely fixed, notably rent.

The Helpline generated an increased surplus over 2019. Whilst income from events completely dried up during the year, sponsorship of the CHS Website and advertising revenues from the CHS Calendar totalling €13,075 were well ahead of expectations. In part this reflected some unaccrued income from 2019, but the overall result was pleasing.

Unlike the experience with the Mental Health Services Centre, Helpline costs were much lower than budget primarily due to the shift to weekly Zoom meetings (as opposed to in-person meetings) and the fact that travel allowances were no longer being paid to our volunteers.

During the year we drew down €13,993 (2019: €16,462) from the cumulative US Dollar and Euro funds held on our behalf by the King Baudouin Foundation. Although donations into these funds are received on a regular basis, they are only taken to income when physically received into the CHS bank account. As at 31 December 2020 there was approximately €24,000 (2019: €12,000) and US$ 800 (2019: US$5,000) still held by KBF and available for draw down in future years.

Other Matters

Given the absence of events during the year, there has been little opportunity for Board Members and other volunteers to promote our activities in the broader community. That said, our free 2021 Calendar has been well received and our stocks are virtually depleted. With the ongoing support of ING who cover the costs of printing, we plan to increase the number of calendars published in 2022 as it continues to contain a wealth of valuable information that is essential to anyone moving to Belgium for the first time.

The CHS website and Social Media sites continue to be a primary source for contact with the wider community. The website enjoyed over 50,000 page views in 2020 and in the month to mid-December 2020 over 10,000 people found the CHS on Google. Our Facebook page continues to increase its effectiveness reaching over 1,500 people in November 2020, a 200% increase over the previous month. However, there is much more that can be done to improve and expand our Internet presence, especially on media platforms which reach a younger audience. We are all grateful to our new Publicity Coordinator, Markaya Henderson, who has taken over this important area.

Conclusion

2020 has been a year of challenge but a year in which much progress has been made. Our Mental Health Services Centre is working at near full capacity; our Helpline has more active volunteers than has been the case for many years; our finances continue to improve and there are some exiting projects in the pipeline that will further enhance the quality of the services we provide.

In closing last year’s report during the first lockdown of 2020, I reflected on our role and concluded that there was never likely to be a time when what we did would be of such relevance to the wider community. At that time, lockdown was a new experience for us all. But in its early stages we actually saw a fall in intakes to the Mental Health Services Centre as well as reduced calls to the Helpline. But as the pandemic has continued, way longer than anyone originally predicted, we are now seeing the impact that sustained restrictions can have on people’s mental health. Not only are Helpline calls increasing again but the nature of those calls is changing, with an increasing number of people in distress. This puts pressure on everyone in the CHS family.

2021 will be another difficult year for everyone. But I am convinced that the CHS is in excellent shape and ready for the challenges that lie ahead.

Jeremy Jennings
Chairman
April 2021

Chairman’s Report

This report summarizes the activities of the CHS for the year to 31 December 2019. It includes discussion on the activities of the Helpline and the Mental Health Services Centre as well as the other aspects of CHS, notably our financial results, events schedule, website and communications.

The Helpline

This has been another busy year with calls to the Helpline, excluding silent calls, totalling 4,710. This represents an increase of over 13% on the previous year. The Helpline continues to function on a 24/7, free, confidential and anonymous basis. Whatever a caller’s problem, a CHS volunteer (recruited, supervised and supported by two professionals from our Mental Health Services Team) is available to listen sympathetically and provide emotional support or helpful information.

Over the years we have seen a gradual reduction in the number of calls to the Helpline from people seeking information. This is, without doubt, directly related to the expanding use of the internet across a wide swathe of the population. However, the decline in information related calls (roughly 8% of all calls in 2019) is also due to the exponential increase in mental-health related calls.

During the year a number of our long-standing Helpline supporters have moved on to other ventures. At the end of the year we had 21 Helpline volunteers, although not all of these are active and/or available all of the time. Although there is no shortage of willing volunteers who are keen to join the Helpline team, it is true that our internal requirements (e.g., regular attendance at weekly meetings of Helpline volunteers) can prove to be an insurmountable barrier for some, especially those in full or even part-time employment.

The Mental Health Services Centre

Similar to the Helpline experience, this has been a record-breaking year with nearly 1,200 new “intakes” during the year – a 23% increase on 2018. And we see no sign of this trend reversing with 175 new intakes in January 2020 alone. In line with our prior year experience, our intakes represented over 40 different nationalities, although the UK, USA, Belgium and Germany account for the majority (roughly 75%).

These unprecedented levels of demand are placing a certain amount of strain on the entire CHS team – therapists and office staff alike, but we are doing our very best to manage these intakes in-house rather than refer them to third party professionals. Even in January 2020, we were able to allocate over 92% of intakes to a CHS professional.

During 2019, the Clinical Team has remained relatively stable with around 17 therapists divided between the Children’s Team and the Adult’s Team. We also have an additional three “Affiliated Members” who provide a range of complementary services (e.g., an Art Therapist, a Dietician and a Family Mediator). We continue to look for one additional Affiliated Member as well as two clinical psychologists (one for each team) as well as a separate psychiatrist for the Adult’s Team.

Financial Results

After a series of years where we have struggled to cover our costs and had to eat away at our cumulative reserves, 2019 was another good year from a financial perspective. After a return to a net surplus of €8,997 in 2018 we generated a further surplus of €23,761 for 2019.

For the first time we have moved from a standard cash-basis of accounting to a more stringent accruals basis as this provides a much better alignment of our income and expenses with our activities in a given period. The effect of this change in accounting policy has been to reduce our 2019 surplus by just under €4,000 due to a combination of capitalising the purchase of new furniture and testing materials (which serve to increase our surplus) but providing for 2019 expenses that were not paid until 2020 (which serve to reduce our surplus).

A brief summary is shown in the table below:

Whilst the Mental Health Services Centre generated a better than budget surplus for the year, we know that MHSC revenues are heavily dependant upon maintaining the Clinical Team at its current size. The loss of just one member of the Clinical Team can have a negative impact on the bottom line by anything up to €10,000.

As more fully discussed below, our numerous fund-raising events have helped move the Helpline into surplus. However, included in Helpline receipts is an amount of €16,462 which we drew down against the Funds held on our behalf by the King Baudouin Foundation. These amounts are only taken to income when physically received into the CHS bank accounts. As at 31 December 2019 there is approximately €12,000 held by KBF in Euro and $5,000 held in US dollars.

Events

During 2019, CHS volunteers either attended or helped to organise nearly 40 specific events. These ranged from independent fund-raising activities organised by our numerous supporters (e.g., the British Chamber of Commerce’s Quintessential British Jolly and the BBCA’s Christmas Party) as well as Christmas Markets at local schools (e.g., the British School of Brussels and the Da Vinci International School), and Charity Concerts (e.g., the Carmel Dempsey Band and the International Chorale Concert).

Whilst fund-raising is an important component of our events calendar, we also need to raise awareness about the CHS’s role in the wider community in order both to recruit new volunteers and, more importantly, reach out to those segments of the population (e.g., the elderly or students) that could benefit from our services. CHS participation at seven separate workshops run by ING and Bright Expats and targeted at the expatriate community in Belgium, all helped fly the CHS flag and attract new volunteers. Our 2020 Calendar, the costs of which are also covered by ING, was also a popular give-away at these events as it contains a wealth of valuable information that is essential to anyone moving to Belgium for the first time.

Conclusion

Whilst mental health statistics are often several years out of date by the time they are published, it is very clear from our activities in 2019 that the importance and relevance of a mental health Helpline has never been greater. Although the stigma attached to mental health issues (whether from a third-party or personal perspective) may be slowly diminishing, there is still scope for significant improvement. Today, people seem to be more comfortable in talking about their mental-health related issues than was the case a decade ago and companies have elevated mental health to the level of the Boardroom. But as the pressures of modern life continue to increase, it is likely that demand for the services the CHS offers will continue to grow.

We are indebted to all our sponsors for their financial support over the past year and hope that this support will continue into the future, although, at time of writing, we find ourselves in the grips of a global pandemic and that future is uncertain. I will not dwell on this subject in what is, essentially, a report on our activities and performance in 2019. However, the relevance of an organisation such as CHS in the current environment has never been greater. 2020 will be a year of significant challenge for everyone but I am confident that the CHS is well placed to respond to these challenges and continue to do what it does best.

Finally, a note of thanks to every member of the CHS family – office volunteers, Helpline volunteers, the Mental Health team and the Board for their dedication and commitment over the past year.

Jeremy Jennings
Chairman
May 2020

Chairman’s Report

CHS has once again been very active throughout 2018, our 47th year in operation. Our Mental Health Services Centre (MHSC) at Avenue des Phalènes/Nachtvlinderslaan 26, 1000 Brussels, had 977 new “intakes” (up 23% on the 794 during 2017), again representing more than 40 nationalities. 44% were men and 56% women, 39% were aged up to 17 and 61% above.

The Centre has an international and multilingual team of professional psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists (18 at the end of 2018, compared with 16 at the end of 2017) offering therapeutic services to deal with a broad range of mental health conditions, as well as psycho-educational assessments for children with learning or behavioural difficulties. There are two teams, one dealing with adults and the other with children, adolescents and families. Details of the therapists, their professional qualifications, therapeutic approach and languages spoken are available on our website.

The construction of the new United Arab Emirates Consulate building neighbouring CHS was completed in December 2018 and the return to relative calm in Avenue des Phalènes has been very welcome for patients, therapists and volunteers alike.

Our 24/7 Helpline in English (02 648 40 14), which is free, anonymous and confidential, and available to children, adolescents and adults, was kept busy during the year, taking more than 4,000 calls. Whatever a caller’s problem, a CHS volunteer (recruited, supervised and supported by mental health professionals) is available to listen sympathetically and provide emotional support or helpful information.

While mental health services and the Helpline are the core CHS activities, another group of professionals referred to as Affiliated Members was created during 2017 and is now well settled into CHS, providing a variety of non-mental health services from the 3rd floor of our premises, specifically art therapy, cranio-sacral therapy and family mediation. Full details are available on our website.

In order to continue increasing awareness about CHS amongst the international community, we participated in many events during the year, those organised for example by ING, BNPPF, The Bulletin, Vlerick Business School, the European Commission, Brussels British Community Association, the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium, Citywork Brussels, Bright Expats and several international schools. We remain active on social media.

During 2018, CHS was also represented at the international community’s 24-hour “Relay for Life” (raising funds for cancer research), the first “Darkness into Light” event in Brussels (to raise awareness about the global fight against suicide and self-harm) and the 20 km of Brussels.

Financially, CHS fortunately returned to a financial surplus of €8,997 in 2018 after several years of deficits.

The €24,608 net increase in total receipts principally relates to higher contributions from Clinical Team therapists and Affiliated Members (€17,673) website sponsorship (€6,800), sponsorship from Cera towards a metro station publicity campaign for the Helpline (€2,000), offset by lower receipts from the CHS calendar (€1,927).

Total expenditure increased by €5,273, mainly reflecting a several-year catch-up for commune taxes (€9,915), some building-related improvements (€2,172), the cost of the metro station publicity campaign referred to above (€3,088) and rent indexation (€1,864). On the positive side, the cost of promotional materials decreased by €5,090 after the major investment in our new range during 2017, Helpline telephone costs decreased by €3,945 thanks to a new tariff from Proximus, and costs for materials required for psycho-educational assessments decreased by €2,259.

The MHSC costs were comfortably covered thanks to the contributions from therapists and Affiliated Members.

The financial situation with the Helpline is more challenging but is definitely improving. While the French, Flemish and German-speaking helplines are all subsidised by their respective regional authorities, CHS receives no subsidies. We therefore have to seek out and rely on other sources of income such as the sale of/advertising in our annual calendar, sponsorship (many thanks again to our sponsors!), fund-raising events (a special thank you again to Brussels New Generation), and donations.

During 2016, the well-respected King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) agreed to establish a “Friends of CHS” fund within both KBF Belgium and KBF United States. These funds permit donors to make tax-efficient donations to support the financing of the CHS Helpline. (Full information on how to donate is included in the “How You Can Help” section of the CHS website.) KBF manages the funds and issues donors with the necessary documentation to obtain their tax deductions. KBF receives a management fee of 5% on these donations.

Up to 31 December 2018, the “Friends of CHS Fund” within KBF Belgium (in €) and “American Friends of CHS in Belgium Fund” within KBF US (in US$) have evolved as follows:

€1,140 of the donations to KBF Belgium in 2018 was raised in connection with the 20 km of Brussels, up from €520 in 2017.

While it has taken time to build relationships with the corporate community, we have recently made very encouraging progress and are hopeful that the two funds will become a sustainable source of financing for the Helpline.

A very big thank you to all who have made donations whether directly to CHS or via KBF. These include companies as well as business, community and school associations, churches, sports clubs and individuals.

The 2019 budget foresees an overall surplus of €4,707, with both the Helpline and MHSC covering their costs. At least €12,000 of the funds in the KBF Belgium fund will be transferred to CHS during 2019 to finance the Helpline.

At the Annual General Meeting in May 2018, the following changes took place:

• Some modifications to the CHS statutes were approved;
• Geoff Brown and Magda Buyse Kelley were re-elected as Chair and Secretary respectively;
• Beverley Warner-Keltjens replaced Sue Borger as Office Administrator;
• Jeremy Jennings and Daniel Pyster were appointed to the Board;
• There was a change of Helpline representative; and
• Ola Ajadi resigned from the Board.

In December 2018, Marie-Thérèse Kastl stood down as CHS Clinical Director and was replaced by Lisa Classen. Stuart Gregory also resigned from the Board. Many thanks to Sue, Ola, Marie-Thérèse and Stuart.

Volunteers continue to play a vital role in CHS. Around 20 support the therapists in the Clinical Team and look after the administrative aspects of the organisation. A separate group, ideally of +/- 30 but sometimes considerably less (we are regularly looking for new candidates …) operates the Helpline, and Board members also give their time freely. I would like to thank them all, as well as the Clinical Team and Affiliated Members, for all that they contribute to CHS which enables us to provide our unique package of support services to the Belgian international community.

I would also like to thank our Patron, Alison Rose, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, for her continued support of CHS during 2018. We were delighted when she came to visit our premises in March 2019, meeting with some therapists, affiliated members, office and Helpline volunteers and Board members. We all noted and greatly appreciated her interest in and enthusiasm for our work. We wish her well with her appointment as Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, which she will take up in September.

Finally, after four years as Chair of CHS, I will be standing down at the AGM in May, continuing as a volunteer. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and experience and thank everybody at CHS and those that I have met and worked with elsewhere in the Belgian and international communities.

I am delighted that Board member Jeremy Jennings, in Belgium since 1990 and well known in the business community, will be taking over as Chair and I wish him well.

Geoff Brown
Chairman

29 April 2019

Community Help Service (CHS) is a non-profit organisation established in 1971 that provides information, support and mental health services to people in Belgium who need help and prefer to express themselves in English, regardless of nationality and circumstances.

Chairman’s Report

Our Mental Health Services Centre, at Avenue des Phalènes/Nachtvlinderslaan 26, 1000 Brussels, (off Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, close to ULB), was contacted by 794 patients (up almost 8% on the 737 in 2016) representing more than 40 nationalities, reflecting the diversity of the international community using our services. Of the 794, 46% were men and 54% women, 38% were aged up to 17 and 62% above.

The Centre has an international and multilingual team (16 at the end of 2017) of professional psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists offering therapeutic services to deal with a broad range of mental health conditions, as well as psycho-educational assessments for children with learning or behavioural difficulties. There are two teams, one dealing with adults and the other with children, adolescents and families. Details of the therapists, their professional qualifications, therapeutic approach and spoken languages are available on our website.

Throughout most of 2017, building construction work going on immediately beside CHS has periodically resulted in considerable noise disruption, not an ideal environment for patients and therapists. At times this will have been very difficult and I thank everyone for their patience. As of April 2018, the project seems to be advancing well, so hopefully the situation will settle down again in the coming months.

Our 24/7 Helpline in English (02 648 40 14), available to children, adolescents and adults, is free, anonymous and confidential and was kept very busy during the year. Whatever a caller’s problem, a CHS volunteer (recruited, supervised and supported by mental health professionals) is always there to offer support or provide information. While mental health services and the Helpline are the core of CHS, another group of professionals, referred to as Affiliated Members, started in September to provide a variety of non-mental health services from the 3rd floor of our premises e.g. art therapy and family mediation. Full details are available on our website.

We expanded our range of promotional materials and now have four brochures covering the Helpline, Mental Health Services Centre, Psycho-Educational Assessments and CHS in general, as well as beer mats promoting the Helpline which are periodically distributed to pubs in Brussels, and boxes of tissues promoting CHS. In order to increase awareness about CHS, we participated at numerous events throughout 2017 organised by e.g. ING, BNPPF, The Bulletin, Vlerick Business School, the European Commission, BBCA, BritCham, the American Club of Brussels and numerous Christmas markets, and we have been much more active on social media, especially on 10 October, World Mental Health Day.

Financially, CHS unfortunately incurred a deficit again in 2017, amounting to €10,338 (2016: €11,536). Total expenditure amounted to €120,216 (2016: €120,553) with receipts amounting to €109,878 (2016: €109,017).

The running costs of the Mental Health Services Centre (MHSC) are generally financed by contributions from the therapists working with CHS. Total MHSC income amounted to €88,830 in 2017 (2016: €82,270) whereas expenditure amounted to €88,630 (2016: €91,370). The swing from a deficit in 2016 to a minor surplus in 2017 primarily reflects higher contributions from the gradually increasing number in the Clinical Team as well as the five new Affiliated Members.

The financial situation with the Helpline is more challenging. While the French, Flemish and German-speaking helplines are all subsidised by their respective regional authorities, CHS receives no subsidies whatsoever. We therefore have to seek out and rely on other sources of income such as the sale of/advertising in our annual calendar, sponsorship (thank you to our sponsors!), fund-raising events, contributions from community associations, and donations from companies, churches, school associations and individuals. In recent years, the amount of income raised has not been sufficient to cover the Helpline running costs, resulting in a deficit of €10,538 in 2017 (2016: €2,436). These recent deficits are gradually depleting the organisation’s modest cash reserves. Income relating to the Helpline in 2017 amounted to €21,048 (2016: €26,747) whereas expenditure amounted to €31,586 (2016: €29,183).

During 2016, the well-respected King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) created a “Friends of CHS” fund within KBF in Belgium to help raise funds for our Helpline. I would appeal to and encourage companies and individuals to support our Helpline via KBF – donations in excess of €40 during a calendar year qualify for a tax certificate which permits a 45% tax deduction in Belgium. KBF issue the certificate early the following year.

Donors in the U.S. can also support the CHS Helpline in a tax-efficient way through a contribution to the “American Friends of CHS in Belgium Fund” at KBF in the United States (KBFUS). Because KBFUS is a public charity (within the meaning of Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code), donors may claim the maximum tax benefits allowed by U.S. tax law for their contributions. We were especially fortunate to receive one donation of $5,000 during 2017.

At the end of €2017, the KBF Belgium fund held €2,420 and the KBF US fund held $390. During 2017, $5,500 had been transferred from KBF US to CHS. Many thanks to all those who made donations.

In terms of other support:• The under-35s group within the British Chamber of Commerce, “Brussels New Generation” again raised funds for the Helpline during 2017 – €375 from the Charity Bake-off and €583 from two pub quizzes.• Towards the end of 2017, Proximus offered a new tariff for Helpline calls which is expected to significantly reduce this dimension of the running costs.• Euroclear donated some office furniture and equipment.

The budget for 2018 foresees another deficit of around €6,000, linked to the Helpline, with the MHSC-related income covering its costs. However, we will be trying very hard during 2018 to identify additional donors for both of the KBF funds to better finance the Helpline. At the Annual General Meeting in June 2017, Ken Inglis retired from the CHS Board after many years’ service (many thanks again Ken!) and Michael Penning and Julie-Anne Stennett joined the team.

Volunteers play a vital role in CHS. Around 20 support the therapists in the Clinical Team and look after the administrative aspects of the organisation, a separate group ideally of up to 30 (we are regularly looking for new candidates) operates the Helpline, and all Board members also give their time freely. I would like to thank them, together with the Clinical Team and Affiliated Members, for all that they do to allow CHS to provide our unique package of support services to the Belgian international community.

Finally, I would like to thank our Patron, Alison Rose, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, for her continued support of CHS during 2017.

Geoff Brown
Chairman24 April 2018

Community Help Service (CHS) is a non-profit organisation established in 1971 that provides information, support and mental health services to people in Belgium who need help and prefer to express themselves in English, regardless of nationality and circumstances.

Chairman’s Report

2016 was another busy year for CHS. Expertly guided by Board member Laura Hoffman, we initiated a comprehensive review of our vision, mission, goals and approach to visual & written communication with our constituents. We worked with FTI Consulting in Brussels (who generously worked on a pro bono basis) and, as well as adopting a new logo, we developed a comprehensive new range of promotional material. While our partnership with FTI Consulting ceased at the end of 2016, we now have brochures, posters, banners, business cards, beer mats and tissues – with our thanks also going to Mireille Robbe of PRO 5. In addition, we upgraded our website and became increasingly active on social media.

We also reconsidered our core values. These are:

Confidentiality: Everything we do is with guaranteed anonymity and a high degree of privacy. We are trustworthy people in whom those coming to or calling CHS can have confidence.

Professionalism: All those working with CHS, including volunteers, are fully trained and qualified.

A non-judgmental attitude: Our mutually supportive environment values every person

Reliability: Our services include regular opening hours and a 24/7 Helpline for round-the-clock assistance and support.

We are now in an excellent position to launch a new campaign to increase awareness about CHS. We want all members of the Belgian international community who find it easier to communicate in English rather than French and Dutch to know about CHS in case they need to seek support for themselves, family members, friends, neighbours or colleagues. To help achieve this, we particularly want to work more closely with other mental health care professionals, doctors, hospitals, schools, churches, national consulates and community associations.

Our Helpline is an anonymous, confidential, 24/7 telephone service in English for children, adolescents and adults. It received more than 2,500 calls during 2016. It is operated by around 30 volunteers (trained, supported and supervised by professional therapists) who can provide general information, emotional support or help in a crisis

Our Mental Health Services Centre, at Avenue des Phalènes/Nachtvlinderslaan 26, 1000 Brussels (off Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, close to ULB), has an international team (15 at the end of 2016) of professional psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists offering therapeutic services to deal with a broad range of mental health conditions, as well as psycho-educational assessments for children. There are two teams, one dealing with adults and the other with children, adolescents and families. Around 20 volunteers support the therapists, taking initial calls from clients, arranging appointments and welcoming clients, whilst also looking after the day-to-day running of CHS and the Centre.

As in 2014 and 2015, more than 700 clients contacted the Mental Health Services Centre during 2016, representing almost 40 nationalities, an indication of the diversity of the people using our services. While all therapists working with CHS speak fluent English, individual members also work in other languages.

Starting early in 2016, psycho-educational assessments in French and German were added to the service in English.

Financially, CHS incurred a deficit of €11,536 in 2016, similar to the €11,483 deficit in 2015. Total expenditure amounted to €120,553 (2015: €139,729) compared to total income of €109,017 (2015: €128,246).

The 2015 deficit was primarily due to exceptional costs linked to our change of premises.

In December 2015, NATO Charity Bazaar donated €7,975 to finance a dedicated assessment and therapy room for children and families but the related costs were incurred during 2016.

The running costs of the Mental Health Services Centre are significantly financed by contributions from CHS therapists, whereas the Helpline, which costs more than €30,000 per year to operate, is completely dependent on external funding. CHS receives no subsidies, unlike the three Belgian national language helplines which are subsidised by their respective regional authorities.

One significant development during 2016 was receiving agreement from the well-respected King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) to create a “Friends of CHS” fund within KBF in Belgium to help raise funds for our Helpline. Companies and individuals making donations in excess of €40 during a calendar year to this fund will receive tax certificates from KBF early the following year, permitting a 45% tax deduction in Belgium.

U.S. donors can also support the CHS Helpline in a tax-efficient way through a contribution to the “American Friends of CHS in Belgium Fund” at KBF in the United States (KBFUS). Because KBFUS is a public charity (within the meaning of Sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code), donors may claim the maximum tax benefits allowed by U.S. tax law for their contributions.

During 2016, we were grateful to receive generous financial support, notably from the British and Commonwealth Women’s Club of Brussels (€3,136), the Brussels British Community Association (€1,500) and the Brussels New Generation dimension of the British Chamber of Commerce which supported CHS via their 2016 Charity Bake-off (€1,085) and two pub quizzes (€1,028).

We really appreciate all those who help CHS in other ways, such as advertising on our website, advertising in or buying our annual calendar, or inviting us to participate at events where we can increase people’s awareness of our services.

The budget for 2017 foresees a surplus of just over €7,000. This assumes that we can successfully attract at least €15,000 in donations via the “Friends of CHS” funds at KBF in Belgium and the U.S. (our most important financial objective for 2017). It also takes into account the increase in the number of therapists who will work with CHS, which should increase therapist contributions by €11,000. Total expenses are again expected to be around €120,000.

As indicated above, we are increasing the number of therapists in our Clinical Team and are hoping to attract other professionals to work with CHS – specialising, for example, in speech and language therapy, graphomotor (handwriting) therapy, occupational therapy, remedial teaching and learning support – thereby broadening the range of services we offer. We would also like to attract more volunteers, both for our Helpline and especially to assist with outreach to the community and fundraising.

Some building work started in May 2017 on an embassy/consulate site directly adjacent to the CHS premises and I ask CHS therapists, volunteers and clients to be understanding and patient during the inevitable noise and inconvenience that this project will entail.

There were some changes to the CHS Board during 2016, with former Chairman Rex Parker, Treasurer Neil Anderson, CHS Office Administrator Anne Arthur and Vincent Tassin resigning at the AGM in May. I thank them all for their different contributions to CHS. We welcomed Sue Borger as CHS Office Administrator, Stephen Mazurkiewicz as Treasurer as well as Ola Ajadi and Stuart Gregory.

CHS is unique in the way it offers its services and support in Belgium. It also brings together a great ‘family’ of people eager to help those in need while also enjoying the CHS working environment. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our loyal, enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers, who take calls on the Helpline, provide support to the therapists and/or assist with the many dimensions of CHS day-to-day operations (e.g. finance, building management, the website, publicity, event organisation and the annual calendar), and our very talented and committed teams of therapists.

Finally, I would like to thank our Patron, Alison Rose, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, for her continued support of CHS during 2016.

Geoff Brown
Chairman16 May 2017

Community Help Service (CHS) is a non-profit organisation that provides information, support and mental health services to people in Belgium who need help and prefer to express themselves in English, regardless of nationality and circumstances.

Chairman’s Report

During 2015, CHS continued to offer its 24/7 Helpline, mental health and educational testing services, but it was also a year of significant change for our organisation. The lease at the previous premises came to an end and, since the owner had decided to convert the office space into student accommodation, we had been advised towards the end of 2014 that we would have to move. After several months of searching in 2015, we were fortunate to find very suitable premises, an entire house, at Avenue des Phalènes 26, 1000 Brussels, off Avenue Franklin Roosevelt and very close to the ULB campus.

We moved during September 2015 and the reaction of all concerned – clients, patients, therapists and volunteers – has been very positive. The building offers 9 therapist meeting rooms compared to 5 in the previous premises and this is facilitating the growth that we had foreseen in the number of therapists working with CHS.

The Helpline continues to provide an anonymous, confidential, 24/7 telephone service in English, for children, adolescents and adults. It is operated by around 30 volunteers (trained, supported and supervised by professional therapists) who can provide general information, support or help in a crisis. During 2015, the Helpline received almost 3,400 calls.

The Mental Health Centre has an international team (16 at the end of 2015) of psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists offering therapeutic services to deal with a broad range of mental health conditions as well as educational testing services for children. There are 2 teams, one dealing with adults and the other with children, adolescents and families.

Identical to 2014, 738 new clients contacted the Mental Health Centre for the first time during 2015, representing almost 40 nationalities, an indication of the diversity of the international community using our services. While all therapists working with CHS speak fluent English, individual members also work in other languages, currently Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish and Catalan.

On the CHS Board, Geoff Brown took over from Rex Parker as Chairman in May 2015, Rex remaining on the Board. Geoff has been living in Belgium for more than 40 years and prior to becoming Chairman was a volunteer on the Helpline for more than 3 years. Laura Hoffman and Vincent Tassin also joined the Board.

Financially, CHS incurred a deficit of €11,483 in 2015 compared to a surplus of €7,576 in 2014. Total expenditure amounted to €139,729 (2014: €107,271) compared to total income of €128,246 (2014: €114,847).

The change of premises involved specific expenditure and investments amounting to almost €22,000 and during one month we were paying for both the old and new premises. Nevertheless, CHS was very fortunate and grateful to obtain sponsorship for some of the investments from the United Fund for Belgium (€10,000 for rugs for all rooms and access control equipment) and Ackroyd Publications (€1,354 for wheelchair access ramps). The overall net cost of the move was considerably less than foreseen. The running costs of the Mental Health Centre are significantly financed by contributions from CHS therapists. Although the house at Avenue des Phalènes is more expensive than the previous office block premises, it provides the required space for growth as well as a much more suitable and welcoming environment for a mental health centre. The increased occupancy costs of the centre will be covered as the number of therapists working at CHS increases.

NATO Charity Bazaar very kindly agreed to finance our application to establish a dedicated assessment and therapy room for children and families in the new premises and transferred €7,975 for this purpose in December 2015. The related costs will be incurred during 2016.

Regarding the Helpline, which costs in excess of €30,000 per year to operate, CHS receives no subsidy, unlike the 3 Belgian national language helplines which are subsidised by their respective regional authorities. CHS therefore relies on income from community associations, sponsorship, donations, the annual calendar and fund-raising events to finance its Helpline and to break even.

During 2015, following the particularly successful Duchess of Richmond’s Ball in 2015, CHS received €12,500 from the surplus. We thank BBCA and the British Embassy for their support and acknowledgement of the contribution that CHS makes to Brussels English speaking community.

We also thank those who support CHS by advertising on our website, advertising in or buying our annual calendar, making regular or one-time donations, providing support in kind through different services and by inviting CHS to events at which we can increase people’s awareness of our services.

The budget for 2016 currently foresees a deficit in excess of €18,000, mainly reflecting the costs of the assessment and therapy room for children and families and an investment of €4,000 to be able to offer educational testing in French and German as well as English, combined with a reduction of income due to the absence of a Duchess of Richmond’s Ball in 2016. While the Board is actively investigating alternative ways to increase income, CHS does in the meantime have modest cash reserves to cover this deficit if it materialises.

Regarding the future, the Board is going to focus in particular on increasing awareness of the services that CHS offers, involving more liaison with schools, national consulates and community associations and new promotional and publicity material. Furthermore, as well as increasing the number of therapists in the mental health team, other therapists, offering for example speech and language therapy, will be invited to work with CHS in order to broaden the services on offer.

CHS would not be able to continue to operate without its loyal, enthusiastic and dedicated teams of volunteers, whether on the Helpline, providing administrative support to the therapists or assisting with the many dimensions of CHS day-to-day operations (e.g. finance, building management, the website, publicity, event organisation and the annual calendar). On behalf of the Board (also volunteers), I thank them all for their contribution which enables CHS to provide its unique formula of services and support in Belgium.

Geoff Brown
Chairman
May 2016

Community Help Service (CHS) is a non-profit organisation that provides information, support and mental health services to people in Belgium who need help and prefer to express themselves in English, regardless of nationality and circumstances.

Chairman’s Report

In its 45 years of life, the challenges for CHS have changed, but not diminished. CHS was founded to provide support for an expatriate community heavily centred on those with English as their mother tongue. Brussels has changed considerably in those years and the community wishing to use English has widened, and will continue to change. Many more residents who have need of our support are not native English speakers, but have English as their first foreign language. CHS has adapted its approach and will continue to evolve to provide support within this diverse community.

During 2014 a number of board changes occurred with Anne Arthur replacing Magda Kelley as administrator in October, Marie-Therese Kastl becoming clinical director in place of Harry Pomerantz in December and the resignation in Q4 of Jo Ann Broger. The organisation extends great appreciation for their contributions to our ongoing success to the members leaving and warmly welcomes their successors.

The Helpline continues to provide a 24/7 confidential listening and information service to the English-speaking community in Belgium. The Helpline is staffed by trained volunteers, under the supervision of professional therapists. The number of calls handled by the Helpline was almost 3,600 during the past year. This compares with over 2,700 in 2013 which was already more than 20% higher than in 2012.

The Mental Health Centre had the services of an average of 15 therapists in 2014. These psychologists and psychiatrists, working as a team, cover most disciplines for both adults and children. This is the only practice in Brussels that combines such a range of support skills, all available in English and other languages. During 2014 the number of new requests for appointments increased to just over 730. Since most people require several sessions with a therapist to alleviate or solve their problem, our resources and facilities remain at a very high occupancy rate and we are exploring how we can add more therapists in the future.

Our therapists have a multinational background and although all speak fluent English for many it is not their native tongue, reflecting the mix of our patient base.

Financially, CHS had a good year with an apparent gain in 2014 of just over Euro 7,500 compensating for the loss in the previous financial year. In reality the benefit was a couple of thousands euro lower since part of the gain was due to an accounting correction from some years ago. However, the additional finances will be needed in 2015 since we will be forced to relocate to new offices thus incurring both moving costs and almost certainly a higher monthly rent. Once again this highlights the need for more routine financial support, and companies who may wish to help us under their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes are being sought. Income sources continue to be underpinned by the therapists’ contributions to infrastructure operating costs, for which we are very grateful.

The calendar and sponsorship are the main other sources of income for the Helpline, and we are once again extremely grateful to the BBCA for their generous support .For the third year we were a recipient of some of the surplus from the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and we thank both the BBCA and the British Embassy for their acknowledgement of our contributions to Brussels English speaking society. Thanks are also given to all other sponsors and organisations who contributed to our funding throughout the year with a particular mention for Euroclear Bank for financing a CHS publicity campaign in the Brussels metro cars and St Anthony’s church which once more ran a quiz night from which the benefits were donated to CHS.

In addition to the fund raising activities a conference was held on the subject of “Burnout”. This took place in the ISB auditorium, which the school kindly offered to us, and was opened by our patron the British Ambassador Alison Rose.

Our website continues to develop under the guidance of Maggie Inglis and ideas for further enhancement of the site are in hand. Our Twitter and Facebook sites are also evolving under the expert guidance of Niki Daun.

2014 was the first full year of successful cooperation with a UK based addiction clinic Castle Craig, which has confirmed that they will be very happy to continue this cooperation through 2015.

Internally, we keep operating costs under tight control and constant review. Here we are aided by the invaluable support of the many people who work as volunteers for CHS.

Without volunteers, CHS could not function. About 25 people ensure the 24/7 coverage of the Helpline by working shifts. Another dozen or so people support the office and the smooth running of the Mental Health Centre, event organisation, outreach and publicity. Money is important, but without the hours put in by the office staff, all of whom are unpaid, CHS would not exist. All volunteers are to be thanked and congratulated for their support and enthusiasm.

Rex Parker
Chairman

Community Help Service is a non-profit organisation that provides information, support, assistance and mental health services to anyone in Belgium who needs help and prefers to speak English, regardless of nationality and circumstances.

Patron: Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium – Miss Alison Rose