Preliminary Evaluation of a Mental Health Program: a Comparison Study

The mental hygiene challenge is a Royal Ottawa Health Care Group led initiative to engage the staff, clients and community members to attend to their mental well-being by way of practicing mental hygiene activities for 10 min on a daily basis, throughout the month of March. Participants are encouraged to choose one or many of the practices recommended and do them for about 10 minutes a day. Participants are encouraged to make it their own, in that they can combine the practice or tailor them in a way that suits them best. When signing up for the challenge, participants receive free access to a toolkit with brief outlines and instructional videos on various mental hygiene practices.

Study investigators also encourage participants to divide the 10 minutes in whatever way best works for them, such as 10 minutes all at once, 5 minutes twice, or even 2 minutes five times. This study aims to expand on the work that was done in 2022 and 2023, when the World Health Organization - 5 Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) were collected from participants to ascertain the impact of mental hygiene, by way of including a control group.