Smiling Mind have secured a three-year $750,000 partnership with nib foundation that will support the development and delivery of the Building Healthy Habits for Healthy Minds home-based mindfulness meditation program. The ultimate aim being to prove the part mindfulness and meditation play in improving mental health and wellbeing for all Australians.
The funding is needed as the nib foundation reports;
One in five Australians experience a mental health issue every year and an estimated 45% of Australian adults will have a mental health condition at some point during their lifetime.
With access to the program to be made available from the palm of your hand, Building Healthy Habits for Healthy Minds aims to empower Australian adults to take positive proactive action to look after their minds every day.
The delivery of a free and accessible app that encourages individuals to take as little as ten minutes out of their day to focus on themselves, will not only help to normalise daily mindfulness based practice but will help Australians to develop an important and practical life skill to safeguard their health.
In a world-first, nib foundation's funding support will enable Smiling Mind to conduct the largest evaluation of an app-based mindfulness intervention program - to measure the impact of their program on increasing the protective factors associated with mental health and wellbeing such as social connection, sleep quality, and developing personal coping skills and resilience to deal with the stresses of everyday life.
The evaluation will be conducted in partnership with University of Newcastle Associate Professor and leader in the field, Frances Kay-Lambkin. In addition the program will be integrated with Apple’s i-Phone based research and data collection products.
Taking time to be mindful is one of the best techniques I have used to help cope with the pressures of playing elite sport. By taking time out to be aware of everything around me, mindfulness meditation has helped me to understand my thoughts and refocus my energy on what's most important at a given time - the here and now. I can't recommend Smiling Mind more highly. My success has come from staying physically fit and mentally strong.
- Smiling Mind Ambassador, Bianca Chatfield, Australian Netballer
With over 2 million people having already downloaded the free Smiling Mind app, Building Health Habits for Healthy Minds provides a unique opportunity for greater understanding about the impact of such work. This will provide not only Smiling Mind but the entire mental health community, with much needed information about the effectiveness of such an intervention on participant wellbeing and stress, as well as the engagement in protective lifestyle factors such as sleep and physical activity.
The Building Healthy Habits for Healthy Minds program will be available to download in June 2018.
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Find out more about our multi-year partnership with nib foundation here.