The European Union awards the "CoActuem per la salut mental" project, promoted by the University of Barcelona
The CoActuem per la salut mental project, an initiative of the Barcelona Citizen Science Office promoted by the OpenSystems research group of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Mental Health Federation of Catalonia, has received the European Union (EU) Citizen Science Award 2024 in the category of digital communities. With this award, the EU distinguishes excellence in work to support communities, generate social benefits and foster an open and participatory society through the innovative use of digital technologies.
CoActuem per la salut mental has created the first citizen science conversation bot through the Telegram application as a research tool at the service of community mental health. A total of thirty-two co-researchers wrote the 222 micro-stories, illustrated by the cartoonist Pau Badia, which are shared through the bot. In this way, their individual experiences and perspectives were shared with the people who entered the assistant to participate in the research. Subsequently, the information collected is interpreted at a collective level through the collaboration of a broad community of professionals and organisations related to mental health.
This pioneering citizen science initiative is helping to better understand how social support networks in mental health work, and to propose actions to promote and strengthen them within society. The award will soon allow the innovative digital tool to be reopened for participation from all over the world and from all individual perspectives.
The project is promoted by the OpenSystems research group of the UB, led by Professor Josep Perelló and with the participation of experts such as Isabelle Bonhouré, Franziska Peter and Anna Cigarini, from the Faculty of Physics and the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB (UBICS); as well as the Mental Health Federation of Catalonia, led by Marta Poll and with the direct involvement of Bàrbara Mitats.
Giving a voice to people with their own experience in mental health
The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for urgent changes in mental health care for the population that involve collective action and community-based support networks. With these references, CoActuem per la salut mental is a pioneering research initiative that investigates social support networks in mental health from a new perspective, to address their concerns and challenges in personal, family and social care on a global scale.
This transdisciplinary research tool, based on computational social science, complexity sciences, social sciences and the world of arts, has explored the key elements of social support networks in mental health. In addition, it has created evidence to detect social contexts that present little support for people with mental health problems and family members, such as work or neighbourhood environments. Associations, health agencies and the WHO itself attribute to social support networks the capacity to improve the well-being and quality of life of people with mental health problems, as well as to avoid social exclusion and prevent possible relapses.
In this case, in the future, we hope to be able to publish related results in scientific journals that will allow us to learn more about social support networks in mental health, which are nourished by social interactions and everyday experiences, clear examples of key aspects for the emotional wellbeing of everyone.
The Citizen Science Awards
The EU Citizen Science Awards were born in 2023 with the aim of recognising the best citizen science initiatives that help foster a pluralistic, inclusive and more sustainable society in Europe with the participation of the public. The second edition, which gathered a total of 288 entries, also awarded the INCREASE (grand prize) and SeaPaCSos (diversity and collaboration award) initiatives. They will be awarded next September at the Ars Electronica headquarters in the city of Linz.
Source: University of Barcelona