Principles proposed for designs from research

How might a smart city promote a meaningful social network (maybe connectivity?) to improve mental resilience?

Smart city elements are initiatives or approaches that:

• combine strategic use of data,

• public-private partnerships, and

• a more resource-efficient, human-centered urban living

Increase Londoners’ wellbeing The “Well-being in London” report from 2014 shows that “[r]esidents of London had higher anxiety and lower life satisfaction, happiness, and less of a sense that the things that they have done in their life are worthwhile, than those living in the rest of the UK” . In order to address this issue, the report states that solutions are needed to encourage Londoners to interact with the city, improve community building and social cohesion and increase access to healthcare and education. Digital technology can play a role in providing such solutions. SpeakSet, for example, is a remote care service set up by East London entrepreneurs. The aim is to connect elderly people with a health professional via the patient’s television [10]. London is also the home of the very successful online learning platform FutureLearn – a MOOC (Massive Open Learning Courses) platform developed by the Open University. Since its inception in September 2013, it has made education accessible to 2.7 million people globally

Cities and mental health

Physical characteristics of the city increase the likelihood of developing mental problems e.g. exposure to noise, artificial light, lack of natural environment, high housing density, lack of privacy.

Social interaction

• builds our self-esteem, self-confidence, and empathy;

• it increases our feelings of support and belongingness in a community,

• helps us cope with life's challenges, and mitigates feelings of loneliness, anxiety and isolation.

• Regular social interactions can also improve cognitive function, particularly memory and intellectual performance

Physical isolation corresponds to social isolation and some neighbourhoods are arranged to discourage interaction: few public spaces, high rise flats, poorly lit streets, poor transport links, crime rates.

Solutions must involve the citizens of the city not just be designed ‘for’ them – they should influence urban planning.

In urban planning one looks at developing public spaces for flexible use (including participation and volunteering opportunities)

Street furniture/park gyms

Orientation of entrances to promote social greeting

Promote pedestrian over individual car use

Some principles of ‘well design’ we can use when considering our solution:

• prioritise and facilitate legible connections to and between potential hubs and gathering places, and remove the barriers to everyday interactions.

• prioritise, accommodate and give explicit consent to cooperative community activity. E.g. sport, politics, culture, education

• promote people’s conscious awareness of place, of each other and our relationships.

• avoid paternalistic risk-averse approaches that strip individuals of their choice and their sense of agency

• promote active movement to and between potential hubs and gathering places to facilitate the pursuit of everyday physical activity

• encourage, facilitate and enable people to volunteer their time as a form of ‘stewardship’ in the pursuit of good places to live. E.g. the running clubs that combine training with cleaning the park or visiting single old people.

Examples:

1. Community-based initiatives that the digital and design agency for local government Future Gov have created like ‘Casserole Club’, which allows people to sign up as cooks and search for diners in their area who they can offer a meal to, have been hugely effective.

The majority of these diners are over the age of 80 and this social enterprise has grown to over 4,000 volunteer cooks nationwide. 70 per cent of the diners consider their volunteer cooks to be friends and 80 per cent say they wouldn’t have as much social contact without Casserole Club.

Matthew Skinner, delivery director at Future Gov said: “New technology is helping us to design digital public services that meet users needs, provide a better experience and cost less. Digital services like Casserole Club are helping to shift the balance of power back to local communities, providing them with light weight digital tools to connect and help each other.

"Casserole Club facilitates neighbours to build long lasting friendships through the shared experience of food, reducing isolation and loneliness in the process.”

2. InTouch Living system in Australia which has been designed to tackle the increasing cost of social care through features like one-click photo sharing, online activities like language lessons and two-way messaging. These digital solutions have been shown to reduce the burden of cost on social care significantly, with an hour of digital social inclusion service being delivered at 60 per cent of the cost of traditional face-to-face emotional support services.