PROJECT ALPHA: PILOT PROGRAM COMPLETION REPORT

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1 PROJECT ALPHA: PILOT PROGRAM COMPLETION REPORT Organisation Overview Using physical fitness as a vehicle to achieve broader social outcomes, Hello Hurricane takes a new approach to existing social work methods. The Foundation aims to offer development pathways to youth through an integrated approach that promotes healthy living and leadership principles. Offering an interactive experience for young people, teenage boys and girls are given opportunity to practically develop themselves, gain confidence in their abilities and strengths, and see that they have power and agency to create change in their own lives. High challenge physical activities are complemented by a planned program of group discussions, targeting areas of difficulty for many young people, such as self-esteem, mental health, nutrition, peer relationships and more. This combined approach offers many benefits when contrasted with clinical social work methods, which often take a more formal sit-down format, akin to group counseling. This approach can exacerbate any sense of stigma and difference already felt by young people, and is not necessarily a comfortable or engaging environment for youth, particularly young men. Although current approaches may still utilise physical activity as part of a development program, for example a high ropes course, they are typically activities that do not provide actual physical benefit to participants, and are highly limited in how they may be applied or continued to achieve physical health outcomes by young people. Hello Hurricane focuses on providing a core program of regular physical activity that achieves social outcomes to improve physical and mental well-being, nutrition, leadership and other soft-skills essential for success in and out of school. Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 1

2 Project Alpha: Goals Many young people in Geelong are suffering from a combination of linked problems, such as poor health, mental health issues and stress. When compared to State averages, Geelong as a region is experiencing higher levels of chronic disease and poor physical health, such as obesity and poor diet, higher levels of depression and lower levels of education. To combat these trends, Hello Hurricane aims to develop young people through a 12-week personal growth program called Project Alpha, that will build resilience, knowledge, confidence and leadership. By offering a varied program of physical fitness and other healthy living concepts to young people, Hello Hurricane expects to see a broad range of social outcomes achieved. These primarily include increased awareness, understanding and application of healthy lifestyle techniques that assist with maintaining positive physical and mental health. This will specifically focus on improved cardiovascular efficiency and physical endurance levels, with anticipated declines in rates of depression and anxiety. This youth specific functional training for mind and body was developed by the Founder of Hello Hurricane to address growing trends in youth inactivity and mental health concerns in the region. The training methodologies used throughout the 12-Week program are specifically selected in order to bring about appropriate amounts of physical stress and push the participants past this own constructed comfort zones. Project Alpha: Impact & Outcomes Context The pilot program was conducted in the Surf Coast Shire in Victoria s southwest, with a group of male Year 9 students. Physical and mental health surveys were conducted at the commencement and conclusion of the program to capture program benefits, and to ensure Project Alpha was effective in carrying out its purpose. While the group of 10 participants is not a statistically significant sample size, results will still be discussed as a whole and on a case by case basis to demonstrate the potential of the program, and the value of expanding the number of participants taking part. Tools The tests used to measure the pilot program were: The Beep Test which tests VO2 Max, (Cardiovascular Efficiency) Hello Hurricane AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) Utilizing basic compound movements, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, Kettlebell swings and a short run. Participants had to complete as many reps as they could within a 10min window. This tests strength endurance. DASS21 Depression and Anxiety Stress Scale developed by University of NSW. Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 2

3 K10 A Depression and Anxiety checklist developed by Professor Kessler of Harvard Medical School. Implementation During each of the 20 sessions there was also a time of discussion covering topics raging from mental and physical health to resilience, leadership and emotional intelligence. Exposing the participants to a broad range of mental health concepts aimed to give them more self awareness and awareness of external influences to help them navigate the process of growing up. Physical Health Results Participant BEEP Test AMRAP Test Initial Final % Increase Initial Final % Increase Beep Test: As a group, all but one participant completed the pre-training beep test and all but two completed the post-training beep test, leaving us with 8 participants to analyze. All of these 8 that had measurable results showed signs of improvement. The smallest of these was Participant 5 (see figure 1) at 9.2% and the greatest of these was Participant 4 (see figure 1) at 34%. Across the test group they produced an average of 20% increase on this test. This proves that Hello Hurricane s focus on compound movement based high intensity training does produce improvement in aerobic capacity. AMRAP Test: The second physical test conducted with this group of participants was an AMRAP Circuit. This entails the participants completing a circuit of 10 push-ups, 10 Squats, 10 Kettlebell Swings, 10 Sit ups and a 50m Shuttle Run for as many reps in 10min, in the process testing their muscular endurance, muscular strength along with anaerobic and aerobic capacity. Once again the results indicate the clear physical health benefits of this training program with an average improvement of 22.45%. The was an outlier of fitness reduction with Participant 4, the greatest improver in the BEEP test, testing at 3.7% less repetitions in the post training test. However this can be explained by the fact Participant 4 showed the greatest increase in the BEEP test, indicating Participant 4 s body carries more slow twitch muscle fibers and a propensity to Aerobic exercise would also most likely result in lower muscle glycogen stores. If this outlier is removed from the data the average increase becomes 26.2% amongst other participants. Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 3

4 Mental Health Results Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety or Stress as determined by DASS21 Assessment Participant Depression Score Anxiety Score Initial Severity Final Severity Initial Severity Final Severity 1 18 Moderate 4 Normal 24 Extreme 6 Normal 2 42 Extreme 14 Moderate 28 Extreme 24 Extreme 3 4 Normal 4 Normal 12 Moderate 6 Normal 4 8 Normal 4 Normal 14 Moderate 24 Extreme 5 4 Normal 0 Normal 6 Normal 6 Normal 6 4 Normal 6 Normal 4 Normal 2 Normal 7 2 Normal 0 Normal 12 Moderate 0 Normal Participant Stress Score Initial Severity Final Severity 1 18 Mild 4 Normal 2 28 Severe 22 Moderate 3 12 Normal 8 Normal Mild 12 Normal 5 0 Normal 0 Normal 6 4 Normal 2 Normal 7 2 Normal 0 Normal Risk of Mental Health Disorder (Depression or Anxiety) as determined by K10 Assessment Participant K10 Score Initial Clinical Risk Final Clinical Risk 1 33 High 11 Low 2 33 High 22 Moderate 3 13 Low 11 Low 4 18 Moderate 13 Low 5 - Low 12 Low 6 13 Low 11 Low 7 14 Low 10 Low A number of tests and checklists were used to assess progress in areas of mental health over the duration of the 10 week program. As there were multiple students unable to complete some pre and post testing due to other commitments we will be discussing some results on a case by case basis rather than using overall statistics. Improvements in one or more areas of mental health was seen in all of the participants who completed both the pre and post training testing. The DASS 21 presented an average of 19.7% decrease across all areas in the four remaining eligible participants while the K10 correlated with an average decrease of 21.8% across all eligible participants. In drawing conclusion from the K10 and DASS 21 we can see an obvious and consistent reduction in the negative mental health areas whilst correlating with consistent improvement in physical health. This gives validity of the notion of a direct link and supports the goal of Hello Hurricane and its method of attainment. Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 4

5 Some clinically significant changes in participants were shown through the use of the tests outlined above. o Depression: The DASS 21 results show that P1 demonstrated moderate clinical symptoms initially that resolved to within normal levels by the end of the program. P2 indicated symptoms within the extremely severe range for depression that improved to moderate levels by the end of the program. The remaining participants were found to have symptoms within the normal range that generally improved, remaining within the normal range. o Anxiety: Both P1 and P2 demonstrated symptoms consistent with extremely severe anxiety levels on the DASS21. While P2 showed improvement in these symptoms, the final score for anxiety remained within the extremely severe range. P1 on the other hand, showed significant clinical improvement of these symptoms to within normal range by the end of the program. P3, P4 and P7 also indicated anxiety levels within the moderate range that clinically improved to within normal range. o Stress: P2 demonstrated severe stress levels that clinically improved to within the moderate range by the end of the program. P1 and P4 also had mildly elevated stress levels that resolved to within normal limits at program completion. The remaining participants all had stress limits within normal limits that generally improved. o Suicide Risk: The K10 test demonstrated that at the beginning of the program, P1 and P2 were assessed as having 10 times the population risk for meeting the criteria for having an anxiety or depressive disorder and 20 times the population risk of ever having a suicide attempt. By the end of the program, P1 met the criteria for low risk, with a remote chance of suicide attempt in their lifetime. P2 went from high risk to moderate risk, having reduced his population risk for having a mental disorder from 10 to 3 times the population and likelihood of suicide attempt from 6 to 1%. P3 also reduced his risk from moderate to low. Remaining participants showed general improvement. Continued Organisation Growth The results of the Project Alpha pilot program have confirmed what is already widely known; that compound movement based high intensity training has physical health benefits in a variety of fitness measures, in addition to various mental health benefits. Hello Hurricane is confident based off these results that the training program is designed effectively according to the organisation s purpose of Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 5

6 improving the physical and mental health of participants, including improvements to alertness and selfesteem, and reduction of stress, anxiety and depression. The Hello Hurricane Foundation, its Directors, program participants and hosting school universally consider the pilot program to be successful in achieving its goal. The focus on organisation activities in 2017 will be to increase participant numbers and reach in the region. Already further interest in the local area has been shown, and the Founder will continue to run Project Alpha throughout 2017 and collect more data to continue informing program development. The information gathered will be used to refine the program content, and refine the measurement tools and methods used. With additional funding, Hello Hurricane is ready to expand Project Alpha into many more schools, reaching more high school students with tools to improve their own physical and mental health. Project Alpha: Pilot Program Completion Report 6