Healthcare Academy Works With MindFi To Offer Healthcare Workers Free Mindfulness App Subscription Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

The public and community healthcare communities can now sign up for a free one-year subscription on the mobile app

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 29 April 2020 - In appreciation of the healthcare community during the COVID-19 outbreak, MindFi, a mobile technology company, has collaborated with the Labour Movement's Healthcare Academy to offer healthcare workers free access to MindFi's popular mindfulness mobile app. Named 'Mindcare', this social impact initiative looks to benefit more than 90,000 public and community healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, community caregivers and first responders by offering them a free one-year subscription to the app which is available on both iOS and Android devices.

The initiative comes on the back of growing pressure on the nation's healthcare system to combat the recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases, which has led to equally rising concerns about the well-being of healthcare workers, especially those on the frontlines. To provide support to this community and promote their self-care, the MindFi mobile app provides a diverse content library of mindfulness activities based on categories such as duration and personal goals.

The outreach and activation of the campaign are spearheaded by Healthcare Academy, which is a collaboration among NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB), Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU) and NTUC's Employability and Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). To do so, it will leverage its broad network of union members, Company Training Committees within the healthcare cluster, healthcare employers and current and past healthcare trainees.

"In these times of crisis, our public healthcare workers are at the frontline and selflessly doing their part for society. From the comforts of our homes, we want to help these carers care for themselves. We are honoured to partner with NTUC Healthcare Academy to launch this targeted initiative. We hope MindFi can be a useful tool for self-care during their brief moments of rest to restore some calm and comfort. We are also in discussions with more partners to broaden our social impact during these trying times," says Bjorn Lee, Founder & CEO of MindFi.

"Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU) welcomes this meaningful partnership with MindFi especially during such challenging times where our healthcare employees are working tirelessly battling against COVID-19, screening patients and attending to the sick without having a thought of their own health at times. The MindFi app allows a break in the routine for our healthcare employees to have respite from exhaustion and have a de-stressing dose of Mindcare for relaxation. As a healthcare staff, I too find Mindcare to be a useful and practical tool and thus far have received good feedback from our union leaders who have used it. Healthcare Academy will continue to sense the pulse of our healthcare employees' needs so as to provide useful programmes that are relevant and impactful for our healthcare employees in collaboration with our partners and the public healthcare clusters." says K. Thanaletchimi, Chairman, Healthcare Academy and President, HSEU.

"We have witnessed how our healthcare workers have committed themselves to the lives of others through their unwavering dedication during this difficult crisis. As our nation rides through this black-swan event, we take comfort in knowing that we have a world-class healthcare system to rely on of which an integral part is the healthcare workers. We know that they have gone through tremendous stress and fatigue in the past months. In our small way, we hope that this initiative will help them squeeze out moments to relax and rest even as they tirelessly brave the fight against COVID-19. This is crucial as we all know that the journey will be long drawn and it is crucial that our healthcare workers' well-being continues to be maintained at a high and sustainable level. We as part of the Labour Movement will help bolster and sustain the engagement of this initiative as we continue training support for healthcare professionals and those joining the industry," says Deputy Chairman of Healthcare Academy and CEO of NTUC LHUB, Kwek Kok Kwong.

"NTUC's e2i is pleased to be part of this initiative to better enrich the mental wellbeing of our frontline healthcare workers in these trying times. We are working closely with our healthcare partners to extend this mobile app to their workers, and we hope to empower both the healthcare industry and workforce towards providing crucial community support needed in the battle against COVID-19," says Vicky Wong, Deputy Chairman of Healthcare Academy and Deputy CEO of e2i.

MindFi, which specializes in mindfulness apps and training for individuals and workplaces, has had good traction and has been lauded by esteemed practitioners for healthcare industry for its mobile app. For example, in a 2018 research study with Singapore General Hospital involving 40 participants, two in five participants who used the MindFi mobile application over a four-week period had improved mindfulness, which brought about a drop in stress level.

Associate Professor John Wong Chee Meng of National University of Singapore & National University Hospital says, "MindFi is a very calming, haptic and sensual application, bringing into one's private space the art of mindful breathing exercises and calming thoughts. The app is a handy tool everyone can access readily, bringing to awareness our emotional wellbeing wherever we may be calling from."

"Our healthcare workers have been working tirelessly since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. They have sacrificed their time with their family and loved ones in order to care for their patients. We are deeply appreciative of their contribution and commitment.  We also want to help ensure that they do not neglect their mental health and wellbeing even as they selflessly care for their patients.  The MindFi app will help our healthcare workers to take care of their mental and emotional wellbeing during this challenging period. We are grateful to HSEU for working closely with our healthcare clusters to render support to our healthcare workers through the various staff wellbeing initiatives being rolled out," says Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources."

Eligible healthcare workers may visit https://getmindfi.com/mindcare-hc/ to register to activate the free membership.

About HealthCare Academy

Healthcare Academy is a collaboration among Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU), Employability and Employment Institute (e2i) and NTUC LearningHub (LHUB). Healthcare Academy endeavours to:

• Support continuous learning for healthcare workers, especially those affected by industry restructuring, job re-design and technological disruptions
• Provide employment opportunities for displaced workers from other sectors to work in the healthcare sector through robust job matching process
• Equip healthcare workers with relevant adaptive skills, technology skills and technical skills, to be future ready for business transformation

Healthcare Academy was birth forth in August 2018 when we envisage the need for healthcare workers to be more agile and adaptive to the changes brought on by technological disruption and demographic changes. We started our journey by addressing one very fundamental change element which is the mind, helping workers to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. We developed our first programme to help workers develop a positive mindset for the workplace. Since then, we have learned and grew, and more products and solutions have been added to our offerings.

About MindFi

MindFi's mission is to build positive and productive workplaces with greater mental wellbeing. Through our family of apps and services, we're helping companies to build a more mindful workplace culture for their employees around the world, gives them access to practical and relevant wellbeing tools, connects them with supportive peers or professionals, and helps employers and leaders to develop more sustainable people-centric programs and policies. Based in sunny Singapore, we are a fast-growing technology startup managed by a team of technology veterans from Silicon Valley and Asia and our products have been featured by Apple, BBC, Forbes, SCMP. MindFi is advised by global leaders in business, psychology and technology, such as ex-Apple Distinguished Technologist Yen-Lu Chow and Prof. Steve Hickman of UC San Diego (UCSD).

About HSEU

Formed in 1989, HSEU is an affiliate of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) representing more than 46,000 persons who are employed in the Healthcare industry. At present, its membership is open to employees from the Healthcare Institutions under Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) and its subsidiaries in any capacity and all employees who are locally employed in the Healthcare Services industry such as private healthcare organisations and healthcare voluntary welfare organizations such as hospitals, nursing homes, step-down care services, elder care centres and related industries in any capacity and who are not ordinary members of any other registered trade union of employees in Singapore. To find out more about HSEU, please visit our website at www.hseu.org.sg

About e2i

e2i is the empowering network for workers and employers seeking employment and employability solutions. e2i serves as a bridge between workers and employers, connecting with workers to offer job security through job-matching, career guidance and skills upgrading services, and partnering employers to address their manpower needs through recruitment, training and job redesign solutions. e2i is a tripartite initiative of the National Trades Union Congress set up to support nation-wide manpower and skills upgrading initiatives. For more information, please visit www.e2i.com.sg.

About NTUC LearningHub

NTUC LearningHub was corporatised in 2004 with the vision of transforming the lifelong employability of working people. We work with both corporate and individual clients to provide learning solutions in areas such as Infocomm Technology, Healthcare, Employability & Literacy, Business Excellence, Workplace Safety & Health, Security, Human Resources and Foreign Worker Training.

To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped over 21,000 organisations and achieved over 2.5 million training places across more than 500 courses with a pool of over 400 certified trainers. As a Total Learning Solutions provider to organisations, we also forge partnerships and provide a wide range of relevant end-to-end training solutions and work constantly to improve our training quality and delivery. 

For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.