Prevention and Response: Room 3 / Salle 107
11:00AM - 12:40AM (Sorbonne Université)
Pilgrimage and Its Impact on Health and Wellbeing: New Evidence from Camino de Santiago View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Berenika Seryczyńska, Lluis Oviedo
Previous psychological studies have highlighted the transformation process many pilgrims live while walking the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James). Often that process is described as a movement from brokenness to integration. They point to a healing experience linked to pilgrimage and taking place at physical, psychological, social and spiritual levels. Several psychological dynamics have been proposed to describe this positive effect: meaning-making, desire for connection, raising awareness, returning home and participating in ritual. A recent empirical study on pilgrims carried out in 2019 offers the opportunity to better assess these beneficial effects. In-depth interviews (n=50) were conducted on a setting at the end of the long pilgrimage, close to Santiago. The general framework inspiring the survey was the pursuit of happiness, as the main goal for every person, including those who undertake the pilgrimage. The findings suggest that pilgrims on the Camino, following the path of virtue, seek to restore inner harmony (between higher and lower nature, between the mind and will and the emotions, and between the soul and the body). Alan Morinis pointed out that while the physical journey brings the pilgrim closer to Santiago, the spiritual journey brings her closer to a desired ideal. The current research allows for a better description on happiness models and their effects in a living context, and suggests how pilgrimage might become a standard therapeutical practice assisting many people in times of distress, or a coping strategy.
Evaluation of AQUATIME in Preventing Dehydration in Seniors : Assessment of a Device Developed in the Active Assisted Living Programme View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jonathan Gomez Raja, Manuel Cid
The water alteration is one of the most frequent reasons for hospital admissions in our society and results in health problems that involves other pathologies. Prevent this problem can result in huge benefits in health and potential cost savings for healthcare organizations. The European project AQUATIME, funded by the Active Assisted Living (AAL) Programme, built a new IoT-enabled solution to monitor and motivate elderly people and provide an overview for caretakers of the hydration status of elderly. This tool can be very useful in residential contexts for the elderly, where the population is usually quite large, in terms of the ratio of workers / caregivers and their needs are usually greater. AQUATIME tool is composed by an intelligent puck connected to a container that quantities the intake of liquids through an application, recording in real time the volume of liquids consumed by each user. We aimed at studying the level of satisfaction of different users who have used the tool through both the evaluation of the fluid intake recorded by the device and the level of satisfaction from users. User satisfaction was measured through different surveys in a qualitative cross-sectional experimental study that involves 15 users. In general, user satisfaction was very positive and increased awareness of fluid intake, providing preliminary data about the potential benefit of this tool in preventing dehydration in older adults. Further trials are planned for shedding light on this topic.
Creative Cultural Wellbeing : A Nexus Model for Living Well on Our Planet View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Karin Mackay
Neoliberal economic policies separate us from deeply soulful practices that allow cultural and spiritual wellbeing to be lived. Cataclysmic world events have refocused societies worldwide to questions what living well means, prompting a rethink of meaningful social connections and relationships with natural ecosystems. While some governments now include wellbeing into social and health policy, focus has been on discrete measurement rather than workable methodologies that incorporate a nexus of relationships between people, place, arts and culture. This paper presents a Cultural Wellbeing framework from research with diverse communities over 15 years that identifies five key elements in the Creative Cultural Wellbeing Framework (CCWF). These are 1) Belonging 2) Creative cultural practices 3) Environment 4) Shared experience 5) Transformational processes. The CCWF demonstrates the interconnected nature of lived wellbeing in communal ecologies, and offers policy makers and creative communities a way to map and respond effectively to rapid changes that impact upon cultural wellbeing.
