Promoting Physical Health in Mental Illness: New Moves Program

The purpose of the assignment is to promote physical health in the real world. The paper outlines the New Moves program that aims to improve the physical health of people with mental illness. The program provides fun physical activities, healthy food habits, support from peers, and topics of discussion for people living in the community with mental disorders. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of the program and suggests improvements.

Running head: MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
ASSESSMENT 1: PROMOTING PHYSICAL HEALTH IN THE REAL WORLD
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
Background:
80% of the people suffering from mental illness died due to severe health condition such
as chronic health condition, infectious disease, unhealthy lifestyle and health risk (Kemp &
Quintana, 2013). Thus, it is important to introduce effective programs to promote and improve
physical health in mental illness. The purpose of the assignment is to promote physical health in
the real world. In this regards the following paper will outline a program that aims to improve the
physical health of people with mental illness. The chosen program for the assignment is New
Moves. The paper will provide a brief idea about the program and evaluate the effectiveness of
the program.
Synopsis of the Program:
New Moves is a healthy lifestyle program arranged by the One Door Mental Health that
provides effective activities in order to improve the physical health of the people with mental
illness. The aim of the program is to develop the physical and mental well being and improve the
physical fitness of the people with mental illness through fun activities. In this regards the
program provides interesting fun physical activities, healthy food habits, support from the peers
and topics of discussion for the person who are living in the community with mental disorders.
The target population of the program is the people aged from 18 to 65 years old. Experienced
and motivated leaders participated in the program to assist the people to achieve their personal
goals. Expert physiologist, peer educator and support workers provide effective service for two
hours weekly and they provide service for 24 weeks (One Door Mental Health, 2018). The
following link could help to provide details about the program-

2MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/New%20Moves%20Burwood%2012%20wks%20comm
%2021%20Feb%202018.pdf
Evaluation of the program:
It is important to introduce program such as New Moves to improve physical health of
mentally ill people. It is difficult for such mentally ill people to practice critical physical
activities, thus improving physical health through fun activities is a smart step to maintain
physical and mental well-being (Morgan, 2013). Healthy food habits help to improve the
immunity thus reduces the risk of suffering from infectious disease (Willett, 2017). Discussion
related to the person those are living with physical illness is important to understand the current
scenario of mental health and introduce effective strategies to improve their health condition.
Expert peer educators, physiologists and support workers assist the people to achieve their
personal goals. Such support helps to reduce risk factors during physical activities such as risk of
falls and injury (Mahlke et al., 2014). However, the time period like two hours weekly is not
enough. The service providers need to extend the time of the program. Furthermore, the program
does not provide service for children that are suffering from mental illness. It is important to
focus on the physical health condition of the mentally ill children. Thus, the service providers
need to include children in their program. Despite of such limitations it is also considerable that
the service provided by the program is effective in order to improve the physical health condition
of the people with mental illness and promote the importance of physical health in such
condition. It is expected that proper focus on the recommendations could help to bring
improvement in the program and achieve expected outcomes (One Door Mental Health, 2018).

3MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
References:
Kemp, A. H., & Quintana, D. S. (2013). The relationship between mental and physical health:
insights from the study of heart rate variability. International Journal of
Psychophysiology, 89(3), 288-296. Retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/45501520/The_Relationship_Betwe
en_Mental_and_Phys20160510-6038-16i24gr.pdf?
AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1531905205&Signature=
WlCEWfCKkptXl9QoA%2FXKxO0DS4A%3D&response-content-disposition=inline
%3B%20filename%3DThe_relationship_between_mental_and_phys.pdf
Mahlke, C. I., Krämer, U. M., Becker, T., & Bock, T. (2014). Peer support in mental health
services. Current opinion in psychiatry, 27(4), 276-281. Retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34402017/Mahlke_Kraemer_PeerSu
pportMHservices_COP_2014.pdf?
AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1531905785&Signature=
3a2Yi0XUEZTek3Qt0Tf2A0iKBKw%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B
%20filename%3DPeer_support_in_mental_health_services..pdf
Morgan, W. P. (2013). Physical activity and mental health. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved from
https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2006-0-03258-
6&isbn=9781134938148&format=googlePreviewPdf
One Door Mental Health. (2018). New Moves. Retrieved from
https://www.onedoor.org.au/services/health-care/physical-health/new-moves/new-moves

4MASTER OF MENTAL HEALTH
Willett, W. (2017). Eat, drink, and be healthy: the Harvard Medical School guide to healthy
eating. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=ukk1DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=healthy+eating+habits&ots=6
GPp-BoiN-&sig=9ijdcCa7G0eu5RHXZgW1B-G5DAQ#v=onepage&q=healthy
%20eating%20habits&f=false