The Be Well Plan: Mental Health and Well-Being During COVID-19
20 Mar 2024
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us felt stressed, isolated, and worried, and our mental health suffered. We wanted to test whether our 5-week mental health program, the Be Well Plan, could improve wellbeing and psychological distress when accessed online from home during the pandemic.
We looked at two key aspects of mental health:
- Positive mental health (wellbeing, life satisfaction, resilience).
- Psychological distress (anxiety, depression, or stress).
Our results showed that people’s mental health improved from the beginning to the end of the program across wellbeing, life satisfaction and resilience.
Here’s what we found:
- 92% of participants improved in at least one area of their mental health.
- Life satisfaction and overall wellbeing showed the greatest improvements.
- Those who had more difficulties with their mental health at the beginning of the program had the greatest improvements.
- Over half of participants improved in both well-being and distress.
- A quarter showed improvements in wellbeing
- Almost a fifth reduced their distress levels without significant changes in well-being.
Our findings show that the Be Well Plan effectively improves wellbeing and mental health, even during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. By addressing both positive mental health and psychological distress, The Be Well Plan offers an effective way to support mental health for individual needs.
Want to Read More?
Wellbeing, Workplace
If you do not invest in your people’s mental health capability now, you risk losing them later
Welcome to another edition of data you need to know, diving into what the data is telling us in one of Australia’s biggest annual workplace mental health surveys: Superfriend’s 2026 Indicators of a Thriving Workplace. It…
05 Aug 2026 6 min read
Wellbeing, Workplace
What’s the state of the global workplace?
Once a month, I’m carving out time to properly read one of the big workplace or wellbeing reports, and sharing what I actually find interesting about it, which isn’t always what makes the headlines….
03 Aug 2026 5 min read
Wellbeing, Workplace
Recognition is a safety signal
Our Head of Programs, Tegan Davies, recently joined David and Emma on A-listed, the Achievers podcast exploring the science and stories of appreciation at work. The conversation covered psychological safety, what wellbeing actually means…
06 Jul 2026