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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO336

parkrun as a scalable community mental health initiative: relevance to psychiatric practice

PARKRUN AS A SCALABLE PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION: RELEVANCE FOR PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE

As a free weekly community event, parkrun offers a scalable, low-cost model for an initiative relevant to prevention, recovery and relapse risk reduction in psychiatry.

The study aims to examine the relevance of parkrun, a free weekly 5-kilometre event held in more than 20 countries, to psychiatric practice and its potential as a global, low-cost community mental health initiative. The methodology involved a narrative synthesis of the literature on parkrun and mental wellbeing, supplemented by a reflective analysis of clinical experience and participant perspectives to identify themes relating to accessibility, participation and mental health outcomes. The figures reported in the poster regarding its scale are as follows: more than 12 million registered participants, over 1.3 million new registrations annually, more than 2,800 event locations, 23 territories and over 450,000 walkers, runners and volunteers each weekend. The findings indicate that participation in parkrun is associated with improved mood, reduced social isolation and an increased sense of belonging; its accessibility, inclusivity and non-competitive format support participation across diverse groups, including people experiencing mental health difficulties and those underrepresented in traditional physical activity initiatives. The model aligns with established psychiatric principles such as behavioural activation, social connectedness and a recovery-oriented approach; UK data suggest improvements in life satisfaction and potential benefits at the system and economic levels, including cost savings through social prescribing. However, much of the evidence is observational; variable awareness, physical limitations and inequalities in access present barriers. The clinical implications include considering parkrun within social prescribing, recommending graded participation tailored to individual needs, encouraging volunteering as an equally valued form of participation, supporting family participation through junior parkrun and using the activity alongside, rather than in place of, evidence-based treatments.

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