SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As unemployment numbers continue to skyrocket, people around the country are facing not only a financial hardship due to job loss, but also an extraordinary mental health burden. That’s why, starting today, Headspace, a global leader in meditation and mindfulness, is announcing it is offering free, one-year subscriptions to all unemployed people in the United States in an effort to help support and mitigate the psychological effects of a rising jobless rate in the wake of COVID-19. This initiative is part of the company’s newly created, “ Headspace Promise,” its ongoing commitment to caring for the mental health of America by helping communities who need it most.
Beginning today, Americans who are unemployed can register for their free Headspace Plus subscription at www.headspace.com/unemployed and unlock access to all 1200+ hours of meditation and mindfulness content including sleep, kids, and mindful movement exercises. In addition to the content in its existing library, Headspace will also be launching six new meditations under a featured collection called “Living through unemployment.” Available May 18, this collection will include meditations such as: “Adapting to sudden change,” “Sadness and loss,” “Recovering confidence,” and “Finding purpose.”
“Job loss can have a substantial negative impact on people's self-efficacy as well as their sense of control, which are two important anchors of mental health,” said Dr. Megan Jones Bell, Chief Science Officer, Headspace. “As a company committed to advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation through clinically-validated research, we know that Headspace meditations have been shown to have favorable outcomes of interventions on key measures like reduced stress, reduced irritability, decreased aggression, and increased resilience. These are really powerful markers in demonstrating how we can support the mental health of those experiencing job loss.”
The Headspace Promise is the company’s ongoing commitment to caring for the mental health of America, helping those who need it most. The new initiative, focused on helping those who are unemployed in the US, follows a series of previous efforts by Headspace to help expand access to its meditation and mindfulness tools since the public health crisis began. This includes offering free subscriptions for US, UK and French healthcare providers working in public health settings as well as K-12 educators in the United States, Canada, Australia and UK. Headspace has also announced partnerships with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to provide free Headspace content to residents. Headspace for Work tools and resources have also been made available to businesses of all sizes around the world to help their teams take care of their teams’ mental health.
“While meditation and mindfulness can’t change our circumstances in life, it can help us change our perspective on those circumstances. And, now more than ever, that’s an incredibly powerful skill to learn,” said Rich Pierson, CEO and Co-Founder, Headspace. “As a company dedicated to improving the health and happiness of the world, we take our responsibility to help support people’s mental health very seriously. It’s our promise today and for whatever tomorrow brings.”
For more information on Headspace, please visit www.headspace.com.
ABOUT HEADSPACE:
Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching more than 65 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace operates a B2B business (Headspace for Work) to offer its mindfulness products and services to more than 700 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, GE, Hyatt and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations. Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple and Amazon, as well as with Nike, NBA and the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team to offer sport and movement content. Headspace Health is Headspace’s digital health subsidiary pioneering new ways to incorporate the Headspace mindfulness experience into digital medicine. Headspace has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies, Apple's Best of 2018, Samsung's Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights' top digital health companies, along with being selected for five Webby Awards in health and fitness between 2018 and 2019. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
