Lifestyle Medicine for Mental Health Services: Life and Mind

Explore the use of lifestyle medicine in the prevention of mental illness

There is now considerable evidence for using lifestyle interventions as a pivotal approach to prevent and treat common mental illness.

On this three-week course, you’ll discover the benefits of using lifestyle medicine in services that provide mental health care and gain practical skills to use in your context.

This course has been developed by mental health clinicians, academics, and those with lived experience. With their expertise, you’ll be supported in implementing lifestyle medicine to aid in the assessment and management of mental illness, recovery, and wellbeing.

What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine uses the evidence-based application of nutrition, movement, sleep, mind-body practices, reduced substance use, connection with the natural world and more. This is then combined with enhanced behaviour change and health coaching, new models of care, and digital health to prevent and treat disease and lead to whole-of-person wellbeing.

You’ll gain an understanding of lifestyle medicine from both a lived experience perspective and as a foundational part of care.

Explore the importance of behaviour change

Next, you’ll uncover how behaviour change and health coaching is crucial in lifestyle medicine approaches. You’ll explore communications skills, behaviour change frameworks, coaching guides, digital tools, and built environment optimisation.

With this knowledge, you’ll have a better understanding of how to care for others and yourself.

Develop as a mental health clinician with Deakin University

Finally, you’ll gain the practical skills to successfully implement clinical lifestyle programmes.

Guided by the experts at Deakin and James Cook universities, you’ll finish the course with the knowledge and confidence to use lifestyle medicine in your mental health practice.

The course is designed for health professionals working in services that provide mental health care, such as psychiatrists, general practitioners, allied health, nursing staff, community workers, and peer support workers.

The course is also relevant for families and carers of those with lived experience of mental illness.

The course is designed for health professionals working in services that provide mental health care, such as psychiatrists, general practitioners, allied health, nursing staff, community workers, and peer support workers.

The course is also relevant for families and carers of those with lived experience of mental illness.

• Describe the role of lifestyle medicine approaches in people with mental illness
• Examine medication optimisation in people with moderate-severe mental illness to reduce the risk of comorbidities
• Explore behaviour change approaches in people with mental illness
• Deliver the implementation and evaluation of lifestyle medicine models of care and programs across health service settings