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The Lift Project explained in 10 points:
- The Lift Project involves 10 lessons, ideally taken over 10 weeks.
- The Lift Project is “evidence-based”. It draws together hundreds of studies from Neuroscience, Lifestyle Medicine and Positive Psychology and studies of The Lift Project have demonstrated that it achieves significant outcomes.
- While science-based, The Lift Project is presented in a fun and simple way that anyone can understand. Encourage your participants to share the learnings and experiences with their families.
- All participants have access to The Lift Project online platform that contains the learning materials and everything they need to engage with the program.
- Each lesson includes a video presentation (approximately 20 minutes) by Dr Darren Morton, who is an internationally-recognised wellbeing expert. Participants can also learn the content by listening to an audio presentation or reading about it. These options are all included in each lesson and many participants engage with these as well as the video.
- Each lesson explores a scientifically proven way to “lift your mood and your life” that the participants learn about and then are encouraged to try for themselves through fun challenges.
- Participants are encouraged to perform a small daily challenge and then one larger challenge that relates to the topic for each week. This is pitched as “challenge by choice” because people appreciate autonomy.
- Everything about The Lift Project is pitched in the positive. Participants are never told what they are doing wrong, only what they can do right to improve their wellbeing.
- The Lift Project is appropriate for people of all ages and backgrounds, regardless of where they are on the mental health continuum. This means that it is a stigma-free program.
- We need each other to do our best and be our best. Hence, The Lift Project achieves its best outcomes when participants engage with it as a group.
How to lead groups:
Bringing your group together, either face-to-face or via videoconferencing, can really bring The Lift Project to life. It is best to do this at a time in the week where you are transitioning to the next lesson (i.e. as a debrief on the previous lesson and introduction to the next). While you have the flexibility to be creative with how you conduct the weekly meet-ups, the objective is to create a “positive place” where participants can share with and encourage each other. A group session of 50-60 minutes is ideal.
When your group meets for the first time, we recommend that you read the disclaimer and point the participants towards appropriate resources should they need additional support (for example, Lifeline). The disclaimer can be found on the main course page: “The Lift Project is an educational program designed to support you to lift your mood and your life. The Lift Project does not take the place of personal professional care from your doctor. Changes in medication(s) should only be made in consultation with your doctor”.
A good format for a group meet-up is outlined below:
- Debrief on the previous lesson by discussing what they learnt and how they went with the challenges. Encourage your participants to share their stories as this is an excellent way to connect the group.
- Introduce the next topic and watch the main video (approximately 20 minutes) for the next lesson together.
- Allow the group to discuss what was presented in the video. A good question to ask the group is, “What did that make you think about?” Invite the participants to share what was new to them as well as what it reminded them of.
- Introduce the challenges for the upcoming week by watching the “Challenge” video together. Encourage the group to give the challenges their best effort and conclude by saying that you look forward to hearing how they went with the challenges at the next meeting.
- Sending encouraging emails or text messages to remind and encourage your group members can also make a big difference to their level of engagement and hence their overall experience. It is good to send a reminder.