Ownership, usage and interest in digital mental health technologies amongst clinicians and young people across a spectrum of clinical care needs (Preprint)

Abstract

There is currently an increased interest and acceptance of technology-enabled mental health care. To adequately harness this opportunity, it is critical that the design and development of digital mental health technologies is informed by the needs and preferences of end-users. Despite young people and clinicians being predominant users of such technologies, little research has examined their perspectives on different digital mental health technologies.

The current study aimed to (i) understand what technologies young people, both within youth mental health services and the general population, have access to and use in their everyday lives, and what applications of these technologies they were interested in to support their mental health; (ii) explore what technologies youth mental health clinicians currently used within their practice, and what applications of these technologies they were interested in to support their clients’ mental health.

Youth mental health service users (aged 12-25) from both primary and specialist services, young people from the general population (16-25), and youth mental health clinicians, completed an online survey exploring technology ownership and use, and interest levels in using different digital interventions to support their mental health, or that of their clients.

588 young people and 73 youth mental health clinicians completed the survey. Smartphone ownership or private access among young people within mental health services and the general population was universal (99%), with high levels of access to computers and social media. Technology use was frequent, with 64% of young people using smartphones several times an hour. Clinicians reported using smartphone apps (84%) and video chat (90%) commonly within clinical practice, and found them to be helpful. Fifty percent of young people used mental health apps, which was significantly less than clinicians (χ2 (3, n = 670) = 28.83, p < .001). Similarly, clinicians were significantly more interested in using technology to support the mental health of their clients than young people were to support their own mental health (H(3) = 55.90, p < .001.), with 100% of clinicians at least slightly interested in technology to support mental health, compared to 89.3% of young people. Follow-up tests revealed no difference in interest between young people from the general population, primary mental health services, and specialist mental health services (all Ps > 0.23). Young people were most interested in online self-help, mobile self-health, and blended therapy.

Technology access is pervasive among young people within and outside of youth mental health services, clinicians are already using technology to support clinical care, and there is wide-spread interest in digital mental health technologies amongst these groups of end-users. These findings provide important insights into the perspectives of young people and clinicians on the value of digital mental health interventions for supporting youth mental health.