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Smiling Mind launches Lifelong Mental Fitness platform
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Freya Lucas
Sep 24, 2024
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Child focussed mental health not-for-profit Smiling Mind has officially launched a program designed to build Lifelong Mental Fitness, which may be of interest to the outside school hours care (OSHC) community as it seeks to support children with their mental health and wellbeing.
“Our research suggests that to end Australia’s mental health crisis, we need to change how we think, speak, and feel about mental health. We need to champion a proactive approach to looking after our own mental health that people feel positive about,” newly appointed CEO Sarah La Roche said.A recent survey of 900 Australians, nearly half of whom were aged 5 - 18 years, showed that mental health is still terminology that carries negativity and stigma, and that those surveyed also overwhelmingly conflate the term ‘mental health’ with ‘mental illness’.
When people have these biases, stigma persists, making it hard for people to talk openly about their mental health, meaning they do not access necessary services.
In order to shift this dial, and to ensure that future generations enjoy better mental health, Smiling Mind has developed a new ‘mental fitness’ program, which seeks to help people to be at their best every day, to navigate challenges and to be in a state of mental wellbeing, more often than not, beginning in childhood and continuing as a lifelong practice.
Developed using global research and validated by psychologists, Smiling Mind’s unique approach to Lifelong Mental Fitness expands beyond mindfulness, supporting people to improve their mental overall wellbeing through five core skill sets:
- Live Mindfully
- Embrace Flexible Thinking
- Grow Connections
- Act Purposefully
- Recharge Your Body
“Our research showed people made a spontaneous association between physical fitness and mental fitness. We want to build on this by teaching people the skills to exercise their brain, just as they do different muscles in their body, with a focus on supporting children,” Ms La Roche explained.
“In the same way we've been taught from a young age to exercise and eat certain foods to keep our bodies physically healthy, we want to raise awareness of the things we can all proactively do to keep our minds healthy. If Australian children can grow up learning these skills, we’ll be setting them up to thrive before mental ill-health prevails.”Download the Smiling Mind App via the App Store or Google Play. For more information on Smiling Mind’s new Lifelong Mental Fitness model visit smilingmind.com.au
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