Take that, Corona Virus!

You know that feeling when your tickets are booked, the accommodation is paid for, the bag’s packed and you’ve even bought new boots to wear for the trip?  Happy days indeed.

 Until Corona Virus (COVID-19) rears its ugly head and your chance-of-a-lifetime trip to Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is cancelled.

 We were beyond excited to be invited to participate in the 2020 Healthcare Innovators Program at Harvard/ MIT in Boston, scheduled for this month, through our work at Mindful Nutrients.  

 The program promises to help those of us developing innovative responses to challenging healthcare problems.  This includes achieve+ junior, which helps with complex conditions like ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aggression, anxiety and depression.

 achieve+ junior is one of just a handful of treatments of this kind in the world, and our acceptance into the program promised an opportunity to help us improve it even more through developing our skills as entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector.  

We had hoped to discover new ways to spread the word about how important nutrition is in helping us and our children to learn better and feel happier, with less anxiety and depression.  And it’s not just kids in Australia who are missing out: make no mistake, this is a serious problem threatening the future of children worldwide.

Happily, all is not lost.  Two of the world’s best universities aren’t easily outsmarted, and the program will transition to an online format.  I’ll be sitting here at my computer doing the work, just as I did when I first came across the research that led us to develop achieve+ junior.  

I know that friendships will still be made, and helpful connections will propel our work forward.  I’ve found this to be true already with other online groups I’m in (here’s looking at you, Seth Godin and Forward Link!), and we look forward to sharing what we learn with you.

In the meantime, stay safe, wash your hands, avoid crowded places and, most of all, look out for the vulnerable, the lonely, and the elderly amongst us.  A friendly phone call, or a casserole left at the door, are a powerful sign that you care. Don’t let fear stop us from making things better where we can.