Hippocrate’s Gardens Trophies: our team in Marseille wins a Regional Award!

Marseille’s University Hospitals (APHM (Assistance Publique – Hopitaux de Marseille) proudly received the Hippocrate’s Gardens Trophy in the regional category for South of France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region). A reward for their innovative action-research approach, addressing a timely and critical issue: social isolation and the healing power of nature.

About the Trophies

Hippocrate’s Gardens Trophies is a French event organized to promote and reward care facilities that set up exemplary actions in landscape designs or through contact with nature, with the goal of benefiting biodiversity, their teams and also their patients/residents.

The first edition was organized in 2022, and the second one in 2024. This year’s awards featured 8 categories:

• Grand Trophy
• Environmental-Biodiversity
• Social/Quality of Life at Work
• Economic/patient
• Societal/local implementation
• Nature indoors
• Brittany Region (France)
• Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region (France).

How does RECETAS set up exemplary actions ?

The RECETAS Project explores how biodiversity influences our well–being, and combats loneliness by testing nature-based social prescriptions. By doing so, RECETAS aims to reinforce communities’ wellbeing, using urban nature’s benefits!

According to Jean-François Denize, President of the French organization ‘Biodiversanté’ which organized the Trophies:

“The awarded project goes beyond the hospital’s boundaries, the region’s boundaries and one’s daily routine’s boundaries. RECETAS distinguishes itself with its action-research focus, tackling a timel issue – with 2025 being the year of mental health: urban-dwellers well-being, isolation in cities and nature’s benefits. This innovative approach stood out beyond the traditional scope of the Trophies.”

Loneliness and social isolation: a growing challenge

Loneliness is a rising concern, that particularly affects economically vulnerable people. In France :

• up to 27% of people who are 60 and older feel isolated,
• 1 out of 5 French people suffers from chronic isolation.

The consequences of loneliness are far-reaching:

• people who feel lonely are 36% more likely to experience sadness than those who do not, and 30% more likely to experience stress. (Source: A. Dugan, Over 1 in 5 People Worldwide feel lonely a lot, Gallup, 2024).

• Experiencing loneliness also has a major impact on physical health, for example associated with increased risks of coronary heart disease and stroke, and a risk factor for depression in later life. (Source: M. Redman, My loneliness is killing me: the devastating effects of social isolation, British Medical Association, 2022). According to the US Surgeon’s General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community (2023) : “The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day […]”.