Mindgardens Neuroscience Network’s flagship Keeping the Body in Mind program (KBIM) has been honoured with the Angelo Cocchi Translational Impact Award at the 15^th International Conference on Early Intervention and Prevention in Mental Health (IEPA), held this year in Berlin.

This Award recognises the significance of translating research into real-world applications, and the impact it has on society by an individual or team. Mindgardens Executive Director, Professor Jackie Curtis, and UNSW Professor Philip Ward accepted the Award in Berlin on the KBIM team’s behalf.

Professor Curtis gave thanks to her extended team for their exceptional work, noting “This has truly been a shared journey – a long, persistent one of clinical, research and advocacy work, and I couldn’t be more proud of our work being acknowledged for Translational Impact. There have been so many people along the way who have made this all possible.”

Two decades ago in Sydney, the KBIM program pioneered the provision of physical health care in mental health services. Alarmed at young consumers’ rapid weight gain, clinicians with the Bondi Early Psychosis Program began metabolic monitoring – checking height, weight, BMI and waist circumference. Their findings convinced them early intervention was essential to address the serious health and quality of life consequences they identified, leading them to develop KBIM, a nutrition and physical activity intervention delivered by dietitians and exercise physiologists for youth with first-episode psychosis (FEP).

The program, which challenged the prevailing view that physical health was outside the purview of mental health services, came to widespread attention with the publication of a landmark pilot study in people experiencing FEP in 2016. Its findings prompted international attention that the KBIM team has used to influence policy and practice globally. Since 2020, the Keeping the Body in Mind(gardens) team has built on KBIM’s core early intervention principles through a series of translational research projects that extend into new domains of physical health and social equity – KBIM Primary, Addi Moves and KBIM Vaccines.

Through ongoing translational research, clinician training and consumer engagement, the KBIM and KBIM(gardens) teams deliver innovation and reform that benefits individuals, health systems, and communities both locally and internationally. The Angelo Cocchi Translational Impact Award highlights the outstanding contribution of these programs to the field of early intervention.

Learn more about the Keeping the Body in Mind program here.