A Practical Nutrition Guide for Individuals with Mental Health Conditions

A balanced and nutrient-rich diet can make an important contribution to mental health. However, people with mental health conditions often face particular challenges in their daily lives that make a varied and regular diet difficult to maintain.
The aim of this project is to develop a practical nutrition guide, including a three-week meal plan, for psychiatric patients. The foundation of the guide is an online survey of young adults in the transition age who have experienced mental health challenges or crises. Individual experiences, needs, and preferences related to daily nutrition are collected and directly integrated into the design of the guide.
The guide provides practical, low-threshold, and cost-effective recipe ideas as well as hands-on nutrition tips that are easy to implement and specifically tailored to the needs of people with mental health conditions. In addition to the survey results, the development draws on the psychological and nutritional expertise of the study team and the professional knowledge of the dietitians at the University Hospital Tulln.
The nutrition guide will be made available free of charge and aims to support individuals in maintaining a simple, health-promoting diet despite the challenges posed by mental health conditions.