This presentation will outline the current Research project between Mindfulness Programs Australasia (MPA) and UTAS (University of Tasmania), exploring the long term impacts in mental health self-management for graduates of Mindfulness courses delivered by MPA over the past 9 years of receiving government funding to make these courses free across the adult Tasmanian population. The presentation will describe the provision of the initial interventions (Mindfulness courses including MBS and MBCT), and support for graduates offered under the Primary Health Tasmania funding, before describing the intent of the current research and its initial findings and emerging themes.
This project, called Water Under The Bridge, is exploring downstream impacts to self care practices, and using Narrative and Most Significant Change (MSE) approaches to understand the ongoing impacts of Mindfulness in graduates lives.
The presentation will include the current thematic analyses and collaborative codesign elements contributing to a thorough assessment of the value of providing free and accessible Mindfulness programs across a population.

Three Key Learnings
1. How Mindfulness programs can be delivered across a largely rural population.
2. Long term impacts of Mindfulness courses.
3. Possible application of the whole of community intervention model at regional scale in other Primary Health Networks in Australia.