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.