Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RECONNECTED (A complex systems approach towards REsilient and CONNECTED vulnerable European communities in times of change)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-06-01 bis 2024-11-30
Europe is facing a number of societal challenges and social and cultural shifts such as digitalisation, migration, and climate change, which increase demands on citizens resilience and puts them at risk of developing mental health problems. RECONNECTED responds to this problem by developing and testing a digital support system to promote resilience and connect vulnerable citizens in vulnerable populations and evaluate whether this results in citizens improved mental health, increased mental health awareness, reduced stigma, and improved social participation, at affordable costs for implementation. Taking a complex system approach, the project will first extend and test a recently developed theoretical integrative conceptual framework of urban mental health to include mental health responses to developments in society. This will provide a good understanding of how risk and protective factors at the individual, social, environmental, and societal levels interact dynamically and impact on mental health. The framework will provide actionable insights for policy decision making and will be used to develop a support system with intervention tools targeting individual and social levels simultaneously. The platform will be co-created with stakeholders in the local community in nine European countries. These interventions will be non-stigmatising and empowering and tailored to the needs of the local community. RECONNECTED will test the feasibility and effectiveness of the support system in these communities and, in the final stage, develop implementation scenarios that balance effectiveness with efficiency and scalability to inform policy decision making that can be used throughout Europe. The methodological approach in the project is theory-informed and data-driven, and we will use co-creation throughout the project to ensure that actionable insights and intervention tools are relevant, acceptable, and ethical to end-users and other stakeholders.
In the first 18 months of the project, collaborations between consortium members were intensified and a strong foundation for the project has been built.
(1) We developed an integrated conceptual framework on risk and protective for mental health at different levels of prescription (societal, environmental, social, individual) (WP2).
(2) Based on the framework, a study to identify the most important risk and protective factors in nine populations across Europe (youth, elderly, low socio-economic status, migrants) was designed and is currently underway.
(3) A series of local stakeholder workshops is being organised to provide input for the development of the digital support system and to ensure that it is relevant and acceptable to end-users (WP3).
(4) Development of the digital support system with intervention tools is ongoing (WP3)
(5) The Moodbuster platform for delivery of the digital support system is being adapted (WP3),
(6) The factorial trial to evaluate the digital support system is being designed (WP4),
(7) Relationships with stakeholders are being strengthened (WP5)
(8) A research infrastructure including a data-management plan and data processing agreement is in place (WP6).
(1) We developed an integrated conceptual framework on risk and protective for mental health at different levels of prescription (societal, environmental, social, individual) (WP2).
(2) Based on the framework, a study to identify the most important risk and protective factors in nine populations across Europe (youth, elderly, low socio-economic status, migrants) was designed and is currently underway.
(3) A series of local stakeholder workshops is being organised to provide input for the development of the digital support system and to ensure that it is relevant and acceptable to end-users (WP3).
(4) Development of the digital support system with intervention tools is ongoing (WP3)
(5) The Moodbuster platform for delivery of the digital support system is being adapted (WP3),
(6) The factorial trial to evaluate the digital support system is being designed (WP4),
(7) Relationships with stakeholders are being strengthened (WP5)
(8) A research infrastructure including a data-management plan and data processing agreement is in place (WP6).
We expect the project to deliver actionable target points for improving the mental health of vulnerable populations and specifically make a digital support system available to help vulnerable citizens to self-manage their mental health.