and backgrounds . Bernie was even inspired by one new friend to take up piano lessons , which he still enjoys .
He says he ’ d definitely recommend the program to other older people who are struggling with their mental health .
“ Don ’ t give up ! If you recognise that you have a problem , don ’ t bottle it up . Go and see a health professional , there is plenty of help out there . You can do it !”
Stepped Care for Older Adults client .
Linking food and mood
Recent evidence shows that high consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with elevated psychological distress .
In response , we developed Food and Mood , an interactive information session designed by our dieticians to give our community an accessible way to learn about healthy eating , the mind-body connection , and how to make initial steps towards change .
The content focused on gut health and dietary changes , such as increasing plant-based foods into diets , reducing caffeine , sugary foods and fried foods , and healthy snack options for children .
We delivered the workshop to a range of groups in the Merri-bek community , with a focus on women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and youth .
What did we achieve ?
8 workshops delivered across 7 venues , attended by 114 participants
participants agreed that the workshop :
– improved their knowledge on food and mood
– improved their understanding of what they can do to improve what they eat
– encouraged them to recommend the workshop to others
– met their expectations of what the workshop would cover
– was a positive step towards a healthy lifestyle
participants strongly agreed that the information was easy to follow
Where can we improve ?
a marketing strategy will help to reach a greater number of people in our community
improving participant outcome measures to be more accessible and easier for participants to complete will aid feedback
improving collaboration with other Merri Health services will help us to streamline our offerings and expand the reach of this program
What ’ s next ?
delivering more workshops in collaboration with other Merri Health services and community partners
reviewing data to track referrals through to our services via the workshop
improving connections with other internal programs to provide healthy eating information across the age spectrum and across services
Merri Health Annual Report 2023 63