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cover art for Episode 1: Beliefs and Purpose - Wellcome Whatever Works #ActiveIngredientsMH

The Mental Elf

Episode 1: Beliefs and Purpose - Wellcome Whatever Works #ActiveIngredientsMH

Season 3, Ep. 1
  • Can having a sense of purpose in life help with youth mental health?
  • How can spiritual and religious beliefs help us to stay mentally healthy?


In this half hour panel discussion, Dr Emily Hielscher (Brisbane, Australia), Prof Christopher Cook (Durham, UK) and Dr Shilpa Aggarwal (Mumbai, India) explore the links between religion, sprituality, sense of purpose and youth mental health.


  1. 01:17 Introductions
  2. 02:28 How does sense of purpose affect youth mental health?
  3. 05:54 What are the key components of sense of purpose interventions?
  4. 07:13 How does sense of purpose help youth mental health?
  5. 08:43 Do spiritual and religious beliefs affect youth mental health?
  6. 13:14 How do spiritual and religious beliefs help youth mental health?
  7. 18:30 What are the adverse effects of spirituality and religion?
  8. 21:39 Who will deliver these interventions to young people?
  9. 23:09 Will interventions work across different countries?


Watch the video version of this show on the Mental Elf YouTube channel.


Find out more about Wellcome Mental Health: 

https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/mental/-health

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