Project description
Digital mental health intervention for combating adolescent loneliness
Poor mental health and social isolation are on the rise among young people, exacerbated by the pandemic. Supportive relationships play a crucial role in mental health and addressing loneliness. Schools currently lack evidence-based interventions to foster a sense of belonging. The EU-funded ASP-belong project has developed Augmented Social Play (ASP), a digital mental health intervention that utilises smartphones to facilitate group experiences. ASP incorporates elements of storytelling, augmented reality, gameplay and psychotherapeutic techniques to enhance mental well-being and foster a sense of group belonging. The project will engage stakeholders in the creation of ASP #1 and its implementation in schools located in Czechia, Portugal and the United Kingdom. This can encourage adoption by policymakers, practitioners and the media.
Objective
"In our fast-changing society, poor mental health and social isolation are increasing among young people, exacerbated by the pandemic. Belonging – feeling connected to and accepted by others through supportive interpersonal relationships – is key to boosting mental health and overcoming loneliness. There is a lack of evidence-based interventions addressing belonging, particularly in schools, which remains a central space for adolescent socialisation. Digital technologies, while disrupting the social landscape, offer enormous potential for adolescent health management. This project develops Augmented Social Play (ASP), a pioneering digital mental health intervention format whose feasibility has been established through proof-of-concept prototype. ASP uses smartphones to deliver real-world group experiences that combine immersive storytelling, augmented reality, collaborative face-to-face gameplay and evidence-based psychotherapeutic methodologies to boost individuals’ mental health while fostering a greater sense of belonging within the group. Collaborating across academia, industry, education, health and the arts, and working with young people, we will co-develop ASP #1, a full-scale, multi-session intervention. We will implement this intervention in schools in Portugal, Czechia, and the UK, using strategies informed by policy review, and evaluate its efficacy, cost-effectiveness and implementation in order to present an evidence base to stakeholders including policy-makers, practitioners and media, stimulating wide uptake. We will further evolve ASP by collaborating with vulnerable adolescents to ensure we meet the widest spectrum of needs; by prototyping additional ASP interventions aimed at different populations and threats to mental health; and by creating comprehensive ethical guidelines. Our long-term goal is wide-scale adoption of ASP, making multiple smartphone-delivered group mental health interventions freely accessible to diverse populations and settings."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities arts
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology pandemics
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.1 - Health
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.1.1 - Health throughout the Life Course
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-HLTH-2022-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
601 77 Brno
Czechia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.