Loneliness among the elderly is a growing problem with major health and well-being consequences. Loneliness is not only a result of less social contact, but is also related to the feeling of being less and less connected to the ‘world’.
Contact with nature can counteract these feelings and encourage pro-social behaviour, but for older people, opportunities to find nature are often limited by reduced mobility and self-reliance. In addition, many existing initiatives aimed at connecting people in ‘green’ (see for example ‘Beter in het groen’ via http://www.beterinhetgroen.nl/ and ‘Groen dichterbij’ via http://www.groendichterbij.nl/) require guidance from family members, caregivers or volunteers.
In the context of cost savings in healthcare and the increasing importance of self-reliance, we see a special role for technology development in tackling loneliness without intensive intervention by healthcare personnel and informal caregivers (a line of thought that is in line with recent developments in eHealth, among others). That is why the Create Health project ‘Growing Roots: Connecting Elderly through Virtual Nature Spaces’ was started in April 2018 in which the requirements and functionalities with regard to a digital nature environment will be investigated.
For more information visit the website of the Growing Roots research project.
Image & Video
Project duration
1 Nov 2018 -1 Nov 2021
Project manager
dr Thomas van Rompay
Researchers
Josca van Houwelingen-Snippe MSc
dr Thomas van Rompay (Universiteit Twente)
Funding
ZonMw Create Health