Hope Badge is now available through 7 cups, in order to train people around the world on how to create a hopeful mindset. As hopelessness is the number one symptom of depression, and correlated to suicide, ifred teamed with 7 cups to Deliver the hopeful minds curriculum by teaching the opposite: hope
iFred, the International Foundation of Research and Education, launched a free training on Hope via the 7 Cups platform. The ‘Hope badge’ is free and available to all and aims to equip individuals and train listeners on what we know to date about creating, maintaining, and growing a hopeful mindset. The program is based on the curriculum for 7-10 year old children, with a free teacher guide, available free for use around the world at Hopeful Minds. The curriculum was adapted to 7 Cups, an app that provides peer-to-peer support, mental health training, and enables consumers to connect with therapists and trained listeners.
To date, 7 Cups has sent over 714 million messages, helped over 25 million people, and trained over 230 thousand listeners. It is being used in 189 countries and is available in over 140 languages. Research to date has shown that 90% of people feel better after talking to listeners, 97% view their listener positively, 80% of people believe listeners can help with their mental health issues, and 70% of people feel support provided by 7 Cups listeners is just as or more helpful than that provided by psychotherapy.
Glen Moriarty, Psy.D., Founder and CEO of 7 Cups, states “I’m delighted to be working with iFred and honored to have the Hopeful Minds curriculum as training pathway a free on the 7 Cups platform. Together, we can be more deliberate about making the world a brighter, more optimistic, and hopeful place.”
As over 600 around the world experience anxiety and depression alone, with depression the leading cause of disability worldwide, the need is significant and technology can reduce significant treatment gaps. Suicide is also now the leading cause of death in 15-18 year old girls, with an astounding 36% of girls in the US self-reporting depression prior to graduating high school. There is a significant, immediate need for understanding, teaching, and growing what may be the antidote to this global epidemic; hope.
Dr. Myron Belfer, an advisor to the project and MD, MPA and Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, outlined that “Hope is tangible and teachable, and it is an essential ingredient for a successful life trajectory. It is independent of resilience, and a skill each child must learn.”
The original Hopeful Minds program was developed by a group of experts with the support of Kathryn Goetzke, MBA, Founder of iFred, President & CEO of The Mood Factory, and global mental health advocate serving a number of advisory boards including Y Mental Health, FundamentalSDG, Women’s Brain Project, and the Global Mental Health Movement. “Depression and anxiety do not discriminate, and they are impacting our children at greater rates, so we must teach them skills to self-regulate before these negative emotions turn into an actual depressive episode or long-term anxiety,” Goetzke added. “With the increasing rates of depression and anxiety in youth, I believe we can and must reverse this trend. Teaching people about Hope and connecting to others that can provide peer-to-peer support is an exceptional way to do so. We must ensure each and every person has someone to talk to when feeling hopeless, and 7 Cups provides the platform to do just that.”
The curriculum is comprised of 12 lessons, and the Hope Badge training takes you through each with a quiz at the end about the lessons. Once certified in the Hope training, you get a ‘Hope Badge’ on your 7 Cups listener profile so that those calling needing support know you understand what we know to date of hope. The lessons teach the meaning of hope, what supports a hopeful state, mindfulness, emotional self-regulation techniques, gratitude, the importance of brain nutrition, the meaning of success as the journey and not the destination, giving hope to others, how to address failure, a technique for ending rumination, finding purpose, and more. It aims to arm all around the world with tips and tricks for having a Hopeful Mindset, even when the odds seems insurmountable.
The integration of the Hope Badge into the 7 Cups platform was made possible by the generous support of Sutter Health, a leading, not-for-profit, integrated health network in California, allowing us to reach each and every person in California to provide much-needed support. Mental health challenges do not discriminate; they impact all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities. If you are interested in bringing Hope to your community, elder center, church, after-school program or more, simply share the Hope Badge, so that everyone can get trained in Hope. And if so inspired, you can visit Hopeful Minds and bring the hope curriculum to the classroom. We already know, the younger we start, the easier it is to teach. Also consider helping us spread the word, so we can ensure each and every person around the world is equipped with critical tools to maintaining a hopeful state.
About iFred: The mission of International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred) is to shine a positive light on depression and eliminate the stigma associated with the disease through prevention, research and education. Its goal is to ensure 100% of the 350 million people affected by depression seek and receive treatment.
iFred is creating a shift in society’s negative perception of depression through positive imagery and branding—establishing the sunflower and color yellow as the international symbols of hope for depression. To further its mission, iFred engages with individuals and organizations to execute high-impact and effective campaigns that educate the public about support and treatment for depression and teaches Hope to young kids through Hopeful Minds.
About 7 Cups: The World’s largest emotional support system.
7 Cups is an on-demand emotional health service and online therapy provider, bridging technology anonymously & securely connecting real people to real listeners in one-on-one chat.
Anyone who wants to talk about whatever is on their mind can quickly reach out to a trained, compassionate listener through our network. They have hundreds of listeners who come from all walks of life and have diverse experiences.
People connect with listeners on 7 Cups for all kinds of reasons, from big existential thoughts to small, day-to-day things that we all experience. Unlike talking to family or friends, a 7 Cups listener doesn’t judge or try to solve problems and say what to do. Our listeners just listen. They understand. They give a person the space they need to help them clear their head.
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