building resilience into human health systems
The healthy communities sub-programme is aimed at building resilience into human health systems. The current themes addressed are environmental psychology, mobile/digital health solutions, and geohealth.
The impact of the environment on various facets of individual and societal well-being has been studied across diverse fields. An area of study that is being led by the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences explores the relationship between the environment and human resilience, and will provide directions for the design of (physical and digital) environments and how stress-reducing approaches that work can be institutionalized.
Another major community health issue is the concentration of medical centres in more urbanized areas, effectively at the risk of depriving smaller communities of essential health facilities. There are already many regional contacts and joint efforts to combat this situation, and supplement existing health services in urban areas with mobile (digital) solutions developed at the UT forming an important ingredient.
Geo-spatial technologies and GIS are helping us to visualize where and when diseases occur and help to determine how to address the problem potentially. A particular focus is on understanding the links between global health and water security in areas of water abundance and water scarcity. The faculty of ITC has a collaborative learning and research environment to address various health resilience issues around the world.
CONTACT FOR health communities
The Healthy Communities leads are:
