Improving wellbeing in high-stress high meaning work: insights from an online intervention to improve Aid Worker mental health

The Aid Worker Wellbeing and Resilience Program (AWARE) programme aims to increase aid worker wellbeing and decrease psychological distress. The intervention is based on Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) which applies mindfulness and acceptance processes along with commitment and behaviour change to create psychological flexibility - the capacity to act in a manner that is aligned with personal values in the presence of challenging thoughts, emotions, and sensations. ACT has six key processes which foster psychological flexibility: contact with the present moment (mindfulness), acceptance (of internal experiences such as distress), cognitive defusion (being aware of a thought without acting on its content), self as context (flexible perspective taking), values, and committed action (in line with values). In our previous research we found that all 6 ACT factors are associated with higher wellbeing in aid workers. Our intervention will deleiver ACT online with four modules covering the six ACT processes: -Module 1: Values & Committed Action -Module 2: Defusion -Module 3: Acceptance -Module 4: Mindfulness Each online module includes psychoeducation on the relevant factor, individual reflection, and experiential exercises. Home assignments build on information presented in the modules and include recorded exercises and skills practice such as guided meditations, acting on set goals, practicing informal mindfulness, and practicing the skills of willingness and defusion. Each time participants start a new module they will be asked to report how often they completed the exercises from the last module: ''How many times did you practice or engage in the home activities from the last module in the past week?''. This is the only way in which the activities will be assessed. The program will be implemented as 4 x 30 minute sessions completed by participants on their own electronic device over 2 to 6 weeks. Modules will be in an online, animated format, and hosted on a University of Queensland website. The experimental group will undertake the intervention while the control group will be wait listed. After 4 weeks the control group will be provided with access to the intervention.