The aim of the course is twofold: on the one hand, at exploring in depth the role of physical activity and sport in mental health and how being active and engaging in sport activities can contribute to people’s wellbeing. On the other hand, at analyzing the deleterious effects of sport activity and how this may compromise mental health and sport.

The MHSPA program aims to provide an innovative educational program which will significantly contribute to the education of Sport Science, Psychology, Medicine, Nursing, and Physiotherapy students.

The study of the relationship between sport and physical activity and mental health is an innovative area of research due to its potential to impact the well-being positively or negatively. The association between sports participation and mental health has been recognized across different age groups. The potential benefits of sport and physical activity extends beyond physical health but also promoting mental health and wellbeing.

Nevertheless, practicing sport is not without risks. Mental health issues among elite athletes but even among community sport athletes and kids are a real concern. These mental health issues may have sport-related manifestations and can impair performance. Furthermore, concerns are rising regarding problematic behaviors associated to physical activity and sport practice, such as addictive patterns of exercise, substance use and abuse, and eating disorders among subgroups of people.

The innovative nature of this area of research is further underscored by the potential for sports to serve as a platform for mental health promotion and early intervention, as well as to prevent the deleterious effects of engaging in sport activities. The program is going to benefit from the needed interdisciplinary expertise that comes from Psychiatry and psychotherapy, Nurse, addiction medicine, Sport medicine, Sport Psychology, Health Psychology, Psychosomatic medicine, Physical Education and Sport Science, Physiology and Motor sciences. The program is also enriched by the input of partners working in different sport, academic, medical and cultural contexts, including sport international associations.

The MHSPA BIP will start with the physical mobility component  (in Lausanne, Switzerland) to enhance team building and student motivation via social collaboration enhanced by social events. 

This strategy will allow to create the group tutoring program, to start with the Group dynamic learning process and to facilitate the future group tasks. 

The virtual mobility program will combine synchronous teaching with online asynchronous sessions.

Teaching and Learning methods:

• lectures: They will be organized online or face-to-face, depending on the theme;
• meetings (in Lausanne) with people with life experience (with mental health and sport issues);
• meetings (in Lausanne) with sports organizations experts;
• group dynamic (in Lausanne) - solving problems, case analysis and debates aiming at promoting collaborative and interdisciplinary work;
• group tutoring: each country manager will be responsible for supporting an interdisciplinary group of students;
• individual work: during the online program, students will be asked to complete (reading, video watching, other assignments);
• group tasks: at the end of the program, students (in group of 2-3) will be asked to give an online presentation to the whole group on a theme linking sport and mental health. 

The physical mobility part will be running from 31 March to 4 April 2025 in Lausanne, Switzerland and will include selected components of the teaching program that may benefit more from students’ interactions and debates, for instance. Some of the learning process will include exercise (e.g. relaxation, yoga, endurance and strengths exercises).

Furthermore, the Physical mobility program will allow to offer the meetings with people Life experience (secondary learning outcomes 1,2, 3, Key specific learning outcomes 4) , the meetings with sports organization experts (Key specific learning outcomes 3 and 4) and visit of the Olympic Museum

The physical mobility component will include selected components of the 4 modules (the parts that may benefit more from students’ interactions and debates, for instance: The ones related to the specific learning objectives 1, 3 and 4 and the secondary learning outcomes 5).

Some of the learning process will include exercise (e.g. relaxation, yoga, endurance and strengths exercises) (key specific learning outcomes 2 and 3).

The Lausanne on site meetings will contribute from the beginning to promote a holistic approach and non-stigmatizing posture (secondary learning outcomes 2 and 3).

Sociocultural program will link sport athletism, history, sociology, philosophy, and culture in Lausanne, one of the most important city for olympic activities and sport international associations (Guided visit and tour to the Olympic Museum center of Lausanne, Meeting with a sport international association).

The virtual mobility program will run between 8 April - 10 June 2025 and will combine synchronous teaching with online asynchronous sessions. The virtual component will consist of 10 weekly meetings (2.5hours per week - 1h lecturing + 1.5h tutoring). In addition, students will have to complete 30 hours of individual and group works. 

Students will be able to find all necessary module information such as power point presentations, case studies, bibliography, and video presentations. Direct links to information sources will also be provided. 

During the whole BIP, based on the group tutoring, the students will have a close supervision of their learning and support for their specific tasks. The virtual mobility program will allow to support the individual works and group tasks.

Some of the online lectures will help to reach or complete the secondary learning outcomes (1, 4 and 6), as well as the key learning outcome 1. The individual and group tasks will allow to foster the overall learning and to help participants increase their skills and knowledge related more specifically to some of the key learning outcomes (for instance 3 and 4).