A new partnership between Smiling Mind and the Australian Federal Government will allow 20,000 Australian healthcare professionals to get access to a dedicated mental health program. The program, now available in Smiling Mind’s popular app, has been tailored to the needs of healthcare workers to help them manage their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a focus on proactive and preventative support, content covers topics such as stress management, sleep, resilience, thinking clearly, and decision making under pressure. Smiling Mind is a non-for-profit web and app-based meditation program developed by psychologists and educators.
The company has said that it has seen unprecedented growth across its digital resources over recent months. April was the organization largest month on record with over 181,200 downloads – an increase of 165% on April 2019 downloads.
Healthcare professionals can access all free content within the Health Professional Support Program by downloading the Smiling Mind app (available on iOS and Android) and navigate to Healthcare Worker under All Programs.
THE LARGER TREND
The global COVID-19 pandemic has put health systems and healthcare workers worldwide under great stress, particularly so for providers which are operating near capacity or do not have enough healthcare staff to deal with a sudden increase in workloads.
In Singapore, mobile technology company MindFi has partnered with Labour Movement's Healthcare Academy to offer healthcare workers free access to MindFi's popular mindfulness mobile app called Mindcare, according to a MobiHealthNews article.
ON THE RECORD
“Smiling Mind’s workplace programs have been used by hospitals and healthcare workers before. With the support of the Federal Government, we have adapted the program to be relevant to the issues that healthcare workers are dealing with right now: increased patient numbers, a high public profile, potential isolation from family and friends and long hours with massive responsibility,” said Dr Addie Wootten, CEO of Smiling Mind.
“Healthcare workers are serving on the front line of the pandemic and for those who do need assistance managing their mental health during this very stressful and anxious time, the healthcare workplace program will be available free of charge. This is one small way we can support them as they support Australia,” she added.
