REACT project completed: New tools to strengthen digital inclusion in rural areas
Digital health solutions are becoming increasingly important – also in rural areas. However, many citizens lack the digital skills needed to use them. The REACT project has developed a model in which volunteers help citizens gain access to digital health services and all teaching materials are now freely available.
Digitalisation holds great potential for strengthening health and welfare services. However, experiences – not least from the COVID-19 pandemic – have shown that not all citizens have the digital skills needed to keep up. Older and vulnerable citizens in rural areas in particular risk becoming digitally excluded.
This challenge has been addressed by the international Erasmus+ project REACT – Rural eHealth Facilitators. The project has now been completed, and all reports, tools and training materials developed within the project are freely available online.
The project was led by Barbara Fersch at the Centre for Rural Research and funded by the EU’s education programme Erasmus+.
Volunteers as a bridge to digital health services
REACT has focused on how so-called rural eHealth facilitators – volunteers with digital competences – can help citizens use digital health and welfare solutions.
The idea is that volunteers can act as a local bridge between citizens and the health and social care system. In close collaboration with healthcare professionals, they can support citizens in:
- understanding and using digital health services
- accessing online consultations and health portals
- developing digital skills and confidence in using technology.
The background for the project is that digitalisation of health and welfare services is often highlighted as a solution to future welfare challenges. At the same time, research shows that socio-economically disadvantaged groups – including many older citizens in rural areas – face a higher risk of digital exclusion and therefore may benefit less from digital services.
Collaboration across Europe
The REACT project brought together researchers and practitioners from four countries: Denmark, France, Portugal and the Netherlands. Through a series of case studies, the project explored how local health and social care actors work with digital solutions and how volunteers can play a role in supporting citizens in using them.
The work involved, among others, municipal health and home care services, educational institutions, volunteer organisations and local community initiatives.
A key focus of the project was to develop a concept and methodology for collaboration between professionals and volunteers to help digitally vulnerable citizens in rural areas gain better access to digital health and welfare services.
Free tools and training materials
One of the central outcomes of the project is a range of practical materials that are now freely available.
These include:
- reports and analyses
- training materials for professionals
- training materials for volunteer eHealth facilitators
- models and tools for collaboration between professionals and volunteers.
The materials are designed for practical use and can be applied by municipalities, organisations, educational institutions and local initiatives that wish to work with digital inclusion and support citizens in using digital health services.
All materials are available in five languages – English, Danish, Dutch, French and Portuguese – and can be freely downloaded and used.
New perspectives on digitalisation in rural areas
The experiences from REACT highlight that digitalisation is not only about technology. It is also about people, skills and local communities.
The project shows that volunteers can play an important role in strengthening digital inclusion – especially when initiatives are developed in close collaboration with professionals and anchored in local communities.
In this way, REACT contributes new knowledge about how digital solutions can improve access to health and welfare services in rural areas without creating new forms of inequality.
All materials from the REACT project are available here: www.sdu.dk/clf/REACT
About the researcher
Barbara Fersch is a sociologist and researcher at the Centre for Rural Research at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research focuses on the interaction between organisations, frontline professionals and citizens in the health and social care sector – particularly in relation to digitalisation, trust and care. She led the EU project REACT (Rural eHealth Facilitators) and currently leads the research project RuDiCare.