University of Toronto’s Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre (MPARC) Partners With Greenspace Health to Support Its MoveU.HappyU Program

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Greenspace Health and the University of Toronto’s Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre (MPARC) announce their partnership to implement Measurement-Based Care (MBC) as a foundational component of the MPARC MoveU.HappyU program. The MPARC facility is dedicated to researching and developing physical activity and mental health programs to support those at risk of inactivity and mental health challenges. They service a range of groups, including mental health service users, cancer survivors, youth sport participants and people with spinal cord injuries. MoveU.HappyU is an innovative and free six-week program that aims to improve student mental health through physical activity. The collaboration will allow MPARC to gather data and insights that empower them to offer more individualized services and recommendations according to the presenting challenges and needs of each student.

MPARC’s MoveU.HappyU program offers students behaviour change coaching and exercise training to improve their mental health. The program includes support for goal setting, planning and self-monitoring to help students engage with a physical activity program and understand its impact on their overall wellness. The goal of the program is to provide non-medical, non-pharmacological approaches to managing students’ mental health. Greenspace will facilitate the measurement process for each individual in the program, including monitoring and comparing the impact of group-based physical activity to individual, in-person or online participation. The data collected will empower the MPARC team to make evidence informed program iterations and innovation decisions.

“Greenspace’s Measurement-Based Care platform has allowed us to streamline and expand our research process, providing insights we can action, and helping create an individualized experience for participants,” said Dr. Catherine Sabiston, Professor, Canadian Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health, University of Toronto. “It has also served as a useful prompt for participants, allowing the MPARC research team to successfully achieve high assessment completion rates as a result.”

“We’re excited by this partnership with MPARC and U of T, as it allows program participants and coordinators to better understand the relationship between physical activity and mental health, and helps to improve the effectiveness of the MoveU.HappyU program,” said Simon Weisz, President, Greenspace Health. “It’s great to see such strong results out of the gate with an average therapeutic alliance score of 85%, and an average symptom improvement score of 33% amongst all program participants.“

To learn more about Measurement-Based Care, please visit greenspacehealth.com.

ABOUT GREENSPACE HEALTH

Greenspace transforms mental health services by improving the way that mental healthcare is accessed, measured and delivered. Their Measurement Platform enables mental health providers and organizations to implement consistent, evidence-based measurement (often referred to as routine Patient Client-Reported Outcome Measures or PROMs) into their practice. This model is proven to significantly impact client results while generating valuable data for organizations to improve care. Greenspace’s Measurement-Based Care solutions have been implemented across community and private clinics, hospitals and healthcare systems, improving the client experience and driving better-coordinated care and clinical outcomes. To learn more about Measurement-Based Care (MBC), please visit www.greenspacehealth.com.

ABOUT MPARC

MPARC is a unique research facility integrating the study of physical activity and mental health. The researchers involved with MPARC are dedicated to developing and evaluating interventions to promote physical activity and mental health among people at risk of inactivity and mental health problems. MPARC is committed to developing and testing intervention programs that will not only work in the lab, but also translate to the real world. Through promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour, the MPARC research team hopes to reduce mental health challenges and incorporate sustainable long-term physical activity into the lives of people from diverse populations. MPARC features accessible cardiovascular and strength training, psychological assessment and data collection tools (on-site and field-based), and advanced software for mixed methods analyses.