Your own health

The ambition of this project is to understand, clarify and strengthen health ownership in various life course, care and social contexts. “In doing so, we take into account the needs, environments, and capabilities of different individuals and contexts. Professional groups that may be affected by health ownership include artists, designers, health experts, patients, policymakers and healthcare providers. They look at health ownership together, but from different contexts and at different levels. To give them the frameworks, the research groups Healthy Lifestyle in a Supporting Environment and Relational Care (both Centre of Expertise Health Innovation) are investigating this phenomenon.

Art and design can be powerful tools to encourage awareness, motivation and behavioural change. Innovative and inspiring methods, such as using visual and artistic communication in eHealth and remote-care, or integrating participatory art and design in health education and prevention, can make people and systems aware of their health in new ways.

Health ownership

In this project, the researchers argue that a new notion of 'health ownership' is needed where the concept is provisionally defined as 'the awareness and appreciation of a person's health and the possibilities and impossibilities of influencing it'.

Yvonne van Zaalen, Relational Care lector: "Health ownership is a special concept. If I am the owner of my own health, this requires something from both myself and the organisation of care. However, not everyone can bear that responsibility, so how can we deal with this as care workers?"

Objective

The aim is to initiate a shift in thinking, focusing less on expanding care supply and more on adapting care demand.

Target group

The project is designed to encourage research projects on health ownership among researchers and artists from the alpha, beta and gamma domains.

Method

This project is implemented through transdisciplinary pilot projects and demonstrator projects (aimed at developing a demonstration model / show case). This is done in collaboration with students from various relevant programmes in higher professional education, scientific education and senior secondary vocational education, and by working with stakeholders to promote implementation of health ownership.

Results

This project is expected to make significant contributions in several areas:

1. Understanding and defining (perceived) health ownership throughout life within the capacities of the individual.
2. Mapping the (often temporary) distribution of health ownership over the individual, their network and the wider context of care.
3. Analysing the current and desired handling of health ownership, as it varies by user context (e.g. age, socio-economic position and life stage) and care context (i.e. primary prevention, curative treatment and palliative care).
4. Raising awareness, and strengthening where appropriate, of health ownership among individuals and stakeholders in these healthcare contexts through practical tools and interventions.
5. Strengthening support for health ownership and facilitating implementation (e.g. through manuals, conditions, regulations, etc.) of health ownership within society, the provision of care, and the community of transdisciplinary research and among the healthcare providers of the future.

Duration

The project runs until August 2028.

Team

• Yvonne van Zaalen
• Wendy Scholtes - Bos
• Sanne de Vries

Collaboration

For this project, The Hague University of Applied Sciences is collaborating with:

• LUMC
• Erasmus MC
• UMC Utrecht
• Leiden University
• Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
• TU Delft
• Design Academy Eindhoven

Funding

The project is facilitated by Medical Delta.

More information

More information on this project can be found on the Medical Delta website.

Contact

Yvonne van Zaalen ([email protected])