Active citizen participation in research is important to generate societal impact of outcomes. Even so, many times, the community input in these processes is limited or non-existent, and co-creation processes are often not documented. This paper describes a structured and systematised protocol to co-create a nature-based social prescribing intervention addressed to face loneliness in urban deprived neighbourhoods. As a result, a nature-based social prescription menu was co-developed with stakeholders from health, social prescription, nature, associative, and research sectors. The menu consists of open spaces and nature activities and will be offered to the participants of a randomised controlled trial to test actions for social prescribing in natural spaces.
Reminiscence therapy (RT) consists of thinking about one’s own experiences through the presentation of memory-facilitating stimuli, and it has as its fundamental axis the activation of emotions. An innovative way of offering RT involves the use of technology-assisted applications, which must also satisfy the needs of the user. This study aimed to develop an AI-based computer application that recreates RT in a personalized way, meeting the characteristics of RT guided by a therapist or a caregiver. The material guiding RT focuses on intangible cultural heritage. The application incorporates facial expression analysis and reinforcement learning techniques, with the aim of identifying the user’s emotions and, with them, guiding the computer system that emulates RT dynamically and in real time. A pilot study was carried out at five senior centers in Barcelona and Portugal. The results obtained are very positive, showing high user satisfaction. Moreover, the results indicate that the high frequency of positive emotions increased in the participants at the end of the intervention, while the low frequencies of negative emotions were maintained at the end of the intervention.
1 April 2017 in Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
Loneliness is a common experience within long-term care and, to promote well-being and quality of life among people with dementia, it is important to draw upon a repertoire of strategies that provide social stimulation, companionship, and enjoyment. This paper describes and reflects on a program of co-operative social participatory research that sought to introduce football-focused (ie, soccer-based) reminiscence based in 4 community settings within Spain and Scotland. Findings are reported and inform an original conceptual model that supports the introduction of sustainable approaches to the development of football-focused reminiscence with and for people with dementia.
1 January 2016 in Revista Española de Geriatría y Gerontología