The Healthy Society Program (HSP) has selected five scaling-up projects for special seed funding. These grants will enable successful health initiatives to be rolled out more widely across the South Holland region.
The Healthy Society Program—a partnership between Leiden, Delft, and Erasmus Universities, Medical Delta, and the province of South Holland—has awarded funding to five project consortia. These consortia consist of a strong mix of academic partners (universities and colleges) and community partners such as municipalities, healthcare institutions, and businesses.
The five approved scaling-up projects focus on improving health in people’s own living and working environments. They range from neighborhood health discussions, healthier lunches at work, and remote video care, to early support for young people in youth mental health care and blood pressure management using a proven approach.
Why does the Healthy Society Program provide grants?
Often, effective health initiatives remain limited to a single neighborhood or hospital. The goal of this catalytic funding is to break this cycle. By scaling up proven successful methods, technologies (such as Virtual Reality), or social approaches, more residents can benefit from innovations without every municipality having to “reinvent the wheel.” The selected consortia will use the funding to adapt their interventions for a broader target group and/or to implement them in new regions.
We want to make proven, successful innovations available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.'
The importance of scaling up
Scaling up is essential to alleviate the growing pressure on the healthcare system and reduce health disparities. When a project proves effective in practice, scaling up ensures that its impact is expanded from the local to the regional (and ultimately national) level. “We want to make proven, successful innovations available to as many people as quickly as possible,” says Prof. Marieke Adriaanse, strategic representative of the Healthy Society program. “Sharing successful innovations accelerates the transition to a healthier society.”
Approved Projects Set to Begin
After careful consideration, the Healthy Society Program has selected the following five projects to receive funding. Over the next two years, these projects will work to scale up proven health interventions in South Holland.
1. From Success to Expansion: Systematic Engagement of Key Figures to Achieve Wider Reach.
Scale up the group consultation—in which neighborhood residents work together with healthcare professionals to improve their health—to more neighborhoods in The Hague by training local residents as facilitators and better tracking the results.
In collaboration with Health Campus The Hague, Health for Everyone, Stichting de Mussen community center, REOS, GGD Haaglanden, Hadoks, and the Municipality of The Hague.
2. Scaling Up StartKracht: Using Waiting Times in Youth Mental Health Care in a Recovery-Oriented Way
StartKracht is used for young people waiting for help from youth mental health services. Instead of waiting passively, they receive an early consultation that helps them take the initiative in addressing their situation.
In collaboration with GGZ Delfland and Leiden University
3. Scaling Up the Blood Pressure Challenge to a Combined Lifestyle Intervention (GLI) with Long-Term Evidence
The Blood Pressure Challenge has been shown to be effective in the short term, but to scale up the program nationwide through the official healthcare system, we need evidence that it also works in the long term. That evidence will be gathered within this project.
In collaboration with Health Coach Program BV, Leiden University of Applied Sciences, Erasmus MC
4. New Lunch Culture
Making lunch at work healthier. Not by telling employees what to eat, but by improving the cafeteria itself—with more vegetables and a pleasant atmosphere. With a special focus on sectors involving physically demanding work, such as the port and logistics.
In collaboration with Greenport West-Holland, GroentenFruit Huis, the Province of South Holland, and The Hague University of Applied Sciences
5. Remote Support, Guidance, and Care, Close to Everyone: Digital Video Care
The Pieter van Foreest healthcare institution will expand video care—where remote care is provided via a screen—to two new areas: day care for people with memory or physical issues, and home rehabilitation following a hospital stay. This allows clients to receive assistance more often from the comfort of their own familiar surroundings.
In collaboration with Pieter van Foreest Healthcare Institutions, CareScreen BV, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
