Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RECETAS (Re-imagining Environments for Connection and Engagement: Testing Actions for Social Prescribing in Natural Spaces)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-03-01 al 2025-02-28
Re-imagining Environments for Connection and Engagement: Testing Actions for Social Prescribing in Natural Spaces (RECETAS) addresses loneliness, a modifiable health condition that is known to shorten one's lifespan and may be as dangerous to one’s health as smoking or obesity. Loneliness knows no geographic, economic, cultural, and social boundaries and affects all age groups. For urban dwellers, nearby nature, with social structures, can improve health and mental well-being and reduce loneliness. Even under the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, people need time in nature for its healing benefits and its role in allowing people to interact in nature. Investments in nature-based solutions (NBS) and green infrastructure (GI) that address rapid urbanization and its adverse consequences on environmental systems in our cities, can be harnessed for health and well-being even in times of health emergencies. RECETAS explores loneliness through a transdisciplinary lens, integrating social, behavioural, health and natural sciences, and is grounded in participatory principles. It uses RCTs and other epidemiologic, anthropological and health economic methods to test socially- and culturally-innovative nature based social prescribing (NBSP) in six cities worldwide. The approach aims to improve upon real-world policy and practice to reduce loneliness by connecting people experiencing loneliness with helping professionals and extensive investments in NBS and GI, while alleviating pressures on stressed health care systems. If successful, it will systematically reduce loneliness, promote and sustain vibrant, socially-connected communities, and reduce health inequalities by connecting to nature in meaningful ways.
RECETAS’s objectives:
1: Understand the patterns and experience of loneliness and NBS/GI to address it in cities
2: Develop and assess novel, participative, viable, and cost-effective solutions
3: Amplify the implementation of novel solutions worldwide
RECETAS’s objectives:
1: Understand the patterns and experience of loneliness and NBS/GI to address it in cities
2: Develop and assess novel, participative, viable, and cost-effective solutions
3: Amplify the implementation of novel solutions worldwide
WP1. We guide key task preparation, we ensure that each of our deliverables and milestones are moving forward on time and as described in the grant agreement. Our team meets weekly in detail with action steps, our Steering Committee meets monthly where deliverables and deadlines are reviewed. We coordinate with WP6 to maintain our website and key communication materials. We support the Publication Committee and promote RECETAS by participating in conferences, raising awareness about NBSP, mental health, and loneliness, and building cross-sector collaborations. WP2. In RP3, VNL significantly revised a scientific publication showcasing the key results of the social network analysis on the stakeholder engagement; it is now being submitted to a new journal. WP3. Continuing the work initiated by WP2, local research teams engaged and fostered in personal relationships with stakeholders to co-create NBSP menus for use in the intervention phase. WP4. We coordinated the implementation of the study protocols for 3 clinical trials and 3 pre-post studies, drawing from WP3’s co-creation and feasibility work. Each intervention site organised local training protocols to support facilitators leading groups in the FiN intervention. We provided support to solve issues during implementation, especially delays on the recruitment. Data are being cleaned for analysis. WP4 coordinated the qualitative research by organizing meetings to share specific knowledge and practices, and to establish a common background for conducting focus groups with facilitators. WP5. The primary databases on unit costs for healthcare resources in Spain, Finland, and Czechia were identified and summarized with support from the trial partners. Data on health resource utilization is collected in close collaboration with the trial partners. Unit costs for all relevant cost items were systematically compiled per site. A study protocol on the design and structure of the planned health economic evaluations was submitted to the journal “BMC Public Health”. A comprehensive table outlining all relevant parameters for the planned decision-analytic model has been prepared. WP6. The Public Engagement Strategy was updated in detail and is used as a key tool to map out our planned activities, target audiences, key messages, and keep us in line with the RECETAS pathway to impact. We hold biweekly meetings between AVITEM and ISGlobal to review an editorial calendar to connect with regional and international events. WP7. We are engaged in a new round of the Horizon Booster program to obtain guidance and support further developing our commercialization and exploitation strategy. Together with Kinetikos, we have developed the digital platform, Friends in Nature, and are testing it with referring clinicians, trained facilitators, third-sector organisations, and people experiencing loneliness. ISGlobal met with providers in January 2025 to present FiN and explore opportunities for collaboration at the Fundació Sanitària Mollet (FSM) to initiate a broader pilot of the platform in a community of 100,000 residents, one large hospital and over 10 community health centers.
WP1. Project visibility and uptake have increased significantly, with results featured in major outlets like the BBC, Le Monde, and the European Parliament. Our results are also exploited by local, regional and national stakeholders and other Horizon consortia and advanced interdisciplinary publications. WP2. Insights continue informing WP3–WP7 and sister projects. In RP3, we published a systematic review and resubmitted a paper to the American Journal of Public Health. WP3. Co-creation consolidated a common understanding among different actors. Increasing awareness of the relevance of the topic, participants felt empowered in the co-creation process and became active beyond the life of RECETAS. WP4. The three RCTs have completed recruitment, and the three pre-post studies have finished delivering the intervention and have started to analyse the results. Helsinki has published an article with the baseline characteristics of their participants. WP4 contributes to gathering data and building the database so the planned health economics analyses on WP5 can be conducted. WP5. After finishing the structure of the decision-analytic model and the study protocol for the cost-effectiveness analyses along the trial, we have collected and summarized the cost information for the cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as the input parameter necessary for populating the decision-analytic model, which will be used to assess the long-term effect of the NBSP initiatives. WP6. We have prioritized embedding RECETAS within local ecosystems by creating lasting contributions to the discussions around and policies and interventions to address the challenges related to loneliness. Our updated communication strategy strengthened outreach efforts, created targeted messaging, and promoted sustainability to keep leveraging interest in social prescribing. WP6 supports future adoption by identifying funding opportunities and fostering partnerships to ensure RECETAS continues beyond the project’s life. WP7. The development and testing of an innovative digital platform will close the gap between health care professionals looking to administer social prescribing and treat loneliness. In RP3, we have advanced the platform to test in real-world settings among the various user groups.