Mindfulness for More: Piloting a Mindfulness Program for Underserved Populations

Interventions engaging individuals in mindfulness practices and activities are being used to improve a variety of physical and mental ailments in many different populations. The body of research on mindfulness is rapidly growing. However, there is a notable lack of research regarding the utilization of mindfulness-based interventions among some of the most stressed populations such as those with insecure housing. Conducted within the context of an ongoing participatory community action research project (“Behavioral Activation Research Project in Homeless Shelters”), which has been a collaboration between the University of Dayton and St. Vincent de Paul in Dayton, Ohio (Reeb et al., 2017) since 2012, this study piloted a new mindfulness program in two gateway facilities utilized by men and women with insufficient housing. Although the focus of this study was on the development of the program and testing it’s feasibility, mixed model, repeated measure ANOVAS were used to determine if state anxiety from pre- to post- intervention within each shelter, as well as by type of first session attended. Result suggested that participating in a single mindfulness session decreased state anxiety for participants, implicating that benefits are received from a single mindfulness practice