THE ASPIRE BLOG

Aspire Indiana Health’s InSHAPE program has been around for six years now, devoted to helping Hoosiers with mental illness work on improving their physical health and wellbeing. It’s very common for people with behavioral health diagnoses to also struggle with excess weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and other health challenges.

The program pairs patients up with personal trainers who provide them with the tools, motivation and support to succeed in their personal health goals. By implementing exercise and improving nutrition habits, InSHAPE helps people lose weight, improve cognitive functions, decrease depression and anxiety, improve self-esteem and decrease social isolation.

Countless Hoosiers with serious mental illness (SMI) are now leading happier, healthier – and longer – lives.

“Really it’s about extending their life. We want to see them live long past what they’re projected to,” said program leader Jody Hall, noting that the life expectancy of people with SMI is significantly lower than the rest of the population. 

Now, Aspire Indiana Health is holding its first-ever fundraiser event to support the program. The InSHAPE 5k Fun Run & Walk is scheduled for April 22 at Conner Prairie. Participants will receive a comfy T-shirt, finisher medal and swag bag, and can choose between a 5k timed event or 1 mile fun run/walk. They can even do both races for the same registration price if they wish. There will be post-race refreshments, warm-up group stretching, face painting and other fun activities for kids, and much more!

Click here to register now. If you can’t join us, please help by spreading the word!

Hall has managed to obtain a number of private donations over the years to help InSHAPE clients with costs such as exercise equipment, gym memberships, shoes and more. But as the reach of the program has grown, there’s more need than ever for assistance. InSHAPE services like Hall’s are billed through Medicaid, with no cost to the clients themselves. All proceeds of the race will go toward program participants.

“Some of our clients have been in the program since the beginning,” Hall says. “They typically live on their own and can experience feelings of isolation. They’re usually not gun-ho initially. If you haven’t been doing exercise for a while, it scares you off. It takes time to build that rapport and see what skills they need to work on to improve their life.”

Even after people ‘graduate’ from InSHAPE, Hall and other trainers generally check in with them on a regular basis to make sure they’re keeping up with the exercise and nutrition activities they learned.

For the event, Racemaker Productions is handling all of the equipment and services to stage the race itself, including timing of 5k racers. Hall credits Jerry Landers, Aspire Vice President of Strategy & Business Development, for pushing him to think bigger and hold an event like this.

“Jerry has been one of the biggest cheerleaders of the program. With his support and his vision, he reached out to me last year and said we should think about doing a big event to support InSHAPE,” Hall says.

The InSHAPE 5k Fun Run & Walk will have a superhero theme, and kids – even grown-up ones – are encouraged to dress as their favorite character for the event. That’s because everyone involved in InSHAPE, from the clients to the trainers to the supporters, are truly superheroes when it comes to helping others.