HOW CAN ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS EVALUATE HEALTHCARE ACTIVITIES IN CARE FARMS? A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

The issue of social farming is analyzed in many European publications and also in economic, political and environmental fields. Nevertheless, there are few arguments about the assessment systems of the activities carried out in the health field of Social Agriculture. For this reason, the purpose of research is to identify in the literature the main green activities considering people with disabilities and to define a framework useful for the evaluation and management of these actions. In order to describe what has been analyzed in the literature, Systematic Literature Review method (SLR) has been performed. According to this methodology, the studies have been identified in two electronic databases: Scopus and Web of Science. Information for the reference articles trough reference lists and through meeting with experts, have been obtained. The keywords searched have been: “care farm” and “assessment”. Several inclusion and exclusion criteria have been used. Furthermore, the research has only considered papers in English to obtain an international validity. After a descriptive analysis, a content analysis to select the therapies used in the farm and the future scenarios of the social agriculture management system has been carried out. The aim of this work is to provide a description of the Social Agriculture activities used in the Agricultural European System. In particular, the Authors propose to (1) identify the actions adopted by care farming; (2) evaluate how different conceptions and different assessment systems about social farming, are combined in the academic debate. The main result is to explore the existing actions classified in order to realize an interpretative framework. It allows the assessment determining strengths and weakness of the activities performed in the care farms. In light of this, the attitude of the countries to invest in some Social Agriculture activities, considering the high value of the assessment systems implementation and the rediscovery of multifunctionality in agriculture serving the community, has been investigated. Care farms are the most innovative expressions of multifunctional agriculture. Through the development of complementary activities related to the production of food, the farms diversify their production in the rural world. The deepening of the care farm activities’ assessment systems, allows to reach a clear definition of the services necessary for the citizens. The present review has specified more exactly the evaluation system’ role in the Social Agriculture field, identifying: (a) integrate care, social activities and work inclusion actions; (b) the most used green therapies and the future evolutions about Social Agriculture evaluation system. Rural context and agricultural process are assuming growing credibility to promote social integration in the communities. In this scenario, the New Rurality evolves towards a new socially useful phenomenon. The value of this new perspective based on the Social Agriculture assessment systems is obtaining great importance thanks to the increase in value for the farmer and the increase in support for social policies in marginal areas.