The Centre for Bio-psychosocial and eHealth Research and Innovation at Federation University Australia launched its flagship program, LIFE FLeX, this week.

Centre for Bio-psychosocial and eHealth Research and Innovation director Professor Britt Klein said she believed the centre was offering a world-first bio-psychosocial web and mobile treatment program for depression and anxiety disorders.

“The ‘FLeX’ part in LIFE FLeX is short for ‘flexibility’ as this program focuses on teaching core psychological and biological life skills to assist people to respond more flexibly and adaptively to life and all of its daily events and challenges,” Professor Klein said.

“Given many adults have not been formally taught these core life skills at school it is little wonder why many of us can struggle, especially when difficulties arise.

“Therefore, LIFE FLeX is about re-dressing this lack of formal education and helping people better learn how to respond to life more flexibility and adaptively.”

Survey estimates suggest about 1,000,000 Australians experience depression and more than 2,000,000 experience anxiety in a 12 month period, and the majority do not access services.

Federation University Australia developed and evaluated one of the first e-mental health programs in 1998, called Panic Online, a cognitive behavioural therapy program for Panic Disorder.

LIFE FLeX provides a person with a mixture of bio-psychosocial treatment modules enriched with video, guided audios, personalised feedback, experiential learning activities, and integrates this with ‘On the Go’ mobile tools.

The program includes weekly activities, mood monitoring form or education on brain and gut nutrition.

The university is offering LIFE FLeX to people 18 years and over using an open experimental design. After consenting to the study, applicants create an account and answer some pre-program questionnaires.

LIFE FLeX can be accessed at www.lifeflex.fedehealth.org.au.