A Call From The H.E.A.R.T’ Project Award Ceremony Edition No.1

Milan, 28 October 2019

The first edition of ‘A Call From The H.E.ART’, the Fondazione De Rigo H.E.A.R.T initiative to support those at the forefront of honourable projects, has concluded.

After considering a vast number of interesting applications and proposals, the Fondazione De Rigo - chaired by Barbara De Rigo - alongside a panel of expert judges consisting of Michelangelo Tagliaferri, Rossana Cavallari and Bianca Borriello, has chosen to award a single prize to Amico H, the project led by the Associazione Onlus Psyché di Milano in collaboration with the University of Milan-Bicocca Department of Psychology.

Inspired by the Associazione Onlus Psyché di Milano motto ‘psychological wellbeing is a fundamental right of each and every person!’, Amico H is a project born of the desire to improve the lives of hospitalised children and their loved ones or caregivers by means of an app.

As explained by Dr Chiara Ripamonti, Associate Professor and Researcher at the Milan-Bicocca Department of Psychology and President of the Associazione Psyché Onlus: “In Italy, over 1,250.000 children are hospitalised each year. There is strong evidence suggesting that the hospitalisation of children can be a risk factor in the development of psychological disorders. In this regard, Amico H has been developed as an educational and fun 3D video game that is easily accessed from any Apple or Android mobile device. An app that accompanies the child and their parents throughout treatment, enabling them to become more familiar with both the people involved and the hospital environment, whilst providing information on instruments and medical procedures. Through the game, we in fact help the child to process their emotions and use suitable behavioural strategies to cope with the different situations that arise, thereby reducing stress levels and negative emotions. But that’s not all: Amico H also assists the parents, providing them with advice on how to best support their child and help them to deal with hospital treatments and procedures”.

Amico H is a versatile app that can be adapted for use with numerous different pathological conditions common to paediatrics. It is dedicated to children from 4 to 9 years of age, can be replicated nationally in various hospital structures and can even be translated into different languages. The trial of the first development phase or prototype is currently under way in the paediatrics ward of the ASST Rhodense Presidio Ospedaliero di Garbagnate Milanese.

Barbara De Rigo, House Brand Marketing Director and President of the Fondazione De Rigo H.E.ART, added the following: “Helping those who help others. With this spirit, we launched our first 'call for entries’, with the intention of standing in solidarity with those already working with children and young people. It seemed both righteous and correct to connect with some of the most active organisations in Italy and we are pleased that ‘A Call From The H.E.A.R.T’ has given us the opportunity to come into contact with so many different associations and discover how much value they generate on a day-to-day basis and just how much remains to be done. We are honoured to have received so many responses and are proud to be able to concretely contribute to the Amico H project: using digital technology to assist children is an idea that immediately struck a chord with us, as well as being wholly consistent with the goal of our foundation”.

The award ceremony was held yesterday on 28 October at the University of Milan-Bicocca Department of Psychology. The project has been allocated a contribution of 20,000 euros on behalf of the Fondazione De Rigo. The foundation has decided to award all of the prize money (instead of splitting it between two projects) to Amico H, considering it to be an especially interesting and effective way of providing support to digital natives in critical moments of their lives, such as periods of hospitalisation.

The co-financiers and prototype partners, in addition to the Fondazione De Rigo, are currently as follows: Fondazione Magica Cleme, Associazione Davide il Drago, the Bird&Bird law firm, University of Milan-Bicocca BiCApP (Bicocca Centre for Applied Psychology), Davide Cardillo and Giovanni Caviezel.