NourishED Mind
A preventative intervention app that helps young people deal with underlying mental health issues before they evolve into eating disorders
Eating disorders impact almost 18% of women and 2% of men under 25, as per research conducted in Finland. This trend has been steadily increasing among young people over the last decade, accelerating even further during the COVID-19 pandemic and turning into a global crisis.
Professor Tracey Wade, a clinical psychologist from Flinders University, has dedicated her career to understanding and treating eating disorders. She aims to offer accessible, holistic and tailored care for young people. To this end, Tracey applied for and won the prestigious investigator grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Using Cogniss, she built a groundbreaking app, NourishED Mind, which combines functional nutrition education with transdiagnostic interventions—strategies that address underlying causes common across multiple mental health conditions, such as emotional dysregulation, perfectionism and low self-worth. The app aims to play a preventative role by addressing mental health issues before they evolve into full-scale disorders.
The app features 10 modules, each designed to connect nutritional guidance with behavioral learning, helping users form healthier habits. These modules incorporate insights from extensive co-design work with young people, caregivers, mental health professionals and researchers, creating a solution that is relevant to its target audience.
“Cogniss was a no-brainer for us. It enables my research team to co-design, develop and test the app, and most importantly, empower us to make a real-time adaptation to the development process in response to the information and findings we're receiving,” Tracey shared. “This flexibility ensures we deliver interventions that are not only effective, but also deeply engaging.”
Available in the app stores, NourishED Mind app represents a significant step forward in eating disorder interventions.
Want to be involved in the development and evaluation of the NourishEd Mind app? Connect with Tracey and her team at Flinders University.
Want to develop an intervention?
Speak to our team to discuss possibilities with Cogniss or to get started with a free trial.