Improving mental health of young Australians with chronic illness: A pilot study of the effectiveness of online self-compassion training

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Chronic physical illness (e.g. diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, autoimmune disease) affects 10-20% of Australian youth and can involve frequent pain, intensive treatment, and major limitations in daily activities. This can have serious impacts on well-being and mental health. In order to address this, we need engaging and accessible interventions to improve well-being and mental health among young people with chronic conditions. We aim to find out whether online self-compassion training improves mental health and well-being in adolescents and young adults with chronic illness. Self-compassion involves treating yourself with the same kindness and understanding as you would a good friend. In self-compassion training, people learn to skills to be kinder to themselves and soothe themselves when they are distressed. This helps them to recover from difficult experiences more quickly. Online programs may be preferable for people with a chronic illness as they are accessible and flexible. We have developed a four-week online program to help people learn self-compassion skills. A We will trial the program with young people (16-25 years) with chronic conditions. We will test whether people doing the program have significant improvements in psychological distress and well-being, compared to people on a waitlist. We will also explore whether any improvements in these outcomes are driven by increases in self-compassion or emotion regulation skills.