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.

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.

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.

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.

Week 1: Introduction to life and mind

Meet your teaching team and other learners, and find key information about this course, including useful tips and links to help you get the most out of your learning.

Take a closer look at the main pillars of Lifestyle Medicine for physical and mental health including diet, exercise, sleep and social connection.

Reflect on the key ideas presented this week, ask questions and engage with your peers.

Week 2: Introduction to behaviour change in Lifestyle Medicine

Learn the essential foundations of behaviour change including communication skills, positive psychology coaching and built environment optimisation.

Review the impact of psychotropic medications on physical health, consider self-care and explore educational strategies and digital tools to support your practice.

Reflect on the key ideas presented this week, ask questions and engage with your peers.

Week 3: Clinical lifestyle programs implementation and ealuation

Examine program implementation, models of care and co-design and hear from a range of experts about their work in Lifestyle Medicine.

Explore the main methods and steps to conducting and disseminating research in Lifestyle Medicine.

Reflect on what you’ve learnt throughout the course to consolidate your knowledge and areas you may need to review.

Start straight away or join an upcoming start date.

Upcoming start dates for 2025:

~~27 January, 2025 (enrolment close 10 March)~~
~~28 April, 2025 (enrolments close 9 June)~~
21 July, 2025 (enrolments close 8 September)
20 October, 2025 (enrolments close 1 December)

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

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

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.

You will learn from a team of mental health clinicians, academics, and those with lived experience led by:

Dr Sam Manger MBBS (MD), BSc, FRACGP, FASLM, Medical Educator

Dr Sam Manger, clinical and academic General Practitioner with a focus on lifestyle medicine and mental health. Academic Lead, Master & Graduate Diploma of Lifestyle Medicine, James Cook University

Dr Tetyana Rocks APD, PhD, BNutrDiet, BSc (Hons), GCertHigherEd

Dr Tetyana Rocks is Senior Research Fellow and Lead of the Food & Mood Academy at the Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University. Tetyana is Accredited Practicing Dietitian passionate about public health.

Support Us

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