Healthy Minds HMRI Research Program
The Healthy Minds HMRI Research Program aims to promote, maintain, and restore mental health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Mental health encompasses the emotional, cognitive and social processes that impact how we feel, think and interact with others in all aspects of everyday life. Mental health is not just the absence of mental illness. It is a state of wellbeing that empowers the individual to thrive in their environment physically, emotionally, cognitively and socially.
Our vision is to enhance the mental health and wellbeing of our communities by improving integration between research innovation, health care and social systems across the life course with a focus on social inclusion.
Our Community Healthy Ageing Initiative (CHAI) aims to increase health literacy, improve health self-efficacy and support mid-late life adults from diverse groups to optimise their personal healthy ageing journey. CHAI is envisaged as a network of local partnerships with diverse community groups that will co-design and co-deliver a program of health information and customised lifestyle interventions that are acceptable to and accessible by that community.
This will be achieved by establishing community-based and community-led hubs (CHAI-Hub) – local, accessible, open-door, drop-in facilities that provide contextually-customised, evidence-based health information to people from priority populations who may otherwise not have access to this information. CHAI-Hubs will be operated by trained community peers (using a train-the-trainer model) supported by a professional force, including nursing, psychology, lifestyle, activity and arts practitioners, local and online services, and relevant peak body partners.