If you are a champion of wellbeing in your profession, or you focus on mental health in your professional practice, you've likely felt this tension: systems built to reduce symptoms don't always leave room for what actually helps people thrive. In this episode, Dr Dr Matthew Iasiello sits down with A/Prof Ana Blasco-Belled and researcher Kiira Sarasjärvi to unpack why that gap exists, and what it would take to close it.
We talk about Ana and Kiira’s shared frustration that wellbeing is often treated as an afterthought in psychosis and psychiatry research. They both argue that mental health should be seen more holistically: not just “less sick,” but actually helping people flourish, make choices, and live well even when they’re facing illness. Are there other professionals out there in this space thinking the same thing about wellbeing?
A big theme in the episode is how current systems and research methods favor short-term, symptom-based outcomes, while wellbeing and prevention are harder to measure and take longer to show.
We discuss the need for better tools, better funding models, and more creative ways of proving the value of preventive psychology and wellbeing-focused interventions.
The take away for this ep? It’s time to shift mental health care toward a more integrated, person-centered, and preventive approach.
Enjoy the listen and let us know what you think in the comments!
Chapters
00:00 — Why wellbeing matters in mental health
The episode opens with a discussion on why mental health care should go beyond symptom reduction and also focus on wellbeing, agency, and quality of life.
12:00 — The measurement problem
The guests explore how current research tools and funding models prioritize symptoms and short-term outcomes, making wellbeing harder to study and easier to overlook.
28:00 — Prevention and intervention in practice
Ana shares a university-based prevention project using ecological momentary assessment, and the conversation turns to how wellbeing can be built into real-world interventions.
37:00 — Agency, autonomy, and lived experience
This section looks at the importance of supported decision-making, listening to people’s goals, and recognizing the gap between clinical priorities and what people actually want.
52:00 — Systems, structure, and change
The discussion closes on the limits of current healthcare systems, the need for better evidence models, and the case for integrating wellbeing into standard care rather than treating it as optional.
Want more?
Connect: Find Kira on LinkedIn and see more of Ana’s work via ResearchGate, and as always, you can find Matt here
More episodes of Researching Happy can be found on our YouTube here.
Researching Happy is a podcast all about the world of mental health and wellbeing research. Your host, Be Well Co’s Head of Data & Translation, Dr Matthew Iasiello interviews academics from different fields to explore their unique perspectives on happiness, the real challenges that they face, the latest research, and how it can make a difference in the real world.
About the guests
Our podcast host Dr Matthew Iasiello speaks to Ana Blasco-Belled, an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Lleida in Spain, and Kiira Sarasjärvi, who has just submitted her doctorate in the mental health and wellbeing field and is based here in Melbourne, Australia. They are both focused on expanding mental health care beyond symptom management to include wellbeing, agency, and quality of life.
