scholarly journals Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings: Protocol for a Pilot Study of the MENTUPP Intervention

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 947
Author(s):  
Ella Arensman ◽  
Cliodhna O’Connor ◽  
Caleb Leduc ◽  
Eve Griffin ◽  
Grace Cully ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties

Depression and anxiety are the most prevalent mental health difficulties in the EU, causing immense suffering and costing the global economy EUR 1 trillion each year in lost productivity. Employees in construction, health and information and communications technology have an elevated risk of mental health difficulties. Most mental health interventions for the workplace have been targeted at larger companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often overlooked despite most people being employed in SMEs. The MENTUPP intervention aims to improve mental health and wellbeing and reduce depression, anxiety, and suicidal behaviour. The MENTUPP project involves the development, implementation, and evaluation of a multilevel intervention targeting both clinical and non-clinical mental health issues and combating the stigma of mental (ill-)health, with a specific focus on SMEs. The intervention is underpinned by a framework of how to create a mentally healthy workplace by employing an integrated approach and has been informed by several systematic reviews designed to understand organisational mental health interventions and a consultation survey with key experts in the area. The intervention is facilitated through the MENTUPP Hub, an online platform that presents interactive psychoeducational materials, toolkits, and links to additional resources in an accessible and user-friendly manner. This paper presents the pilot study protocol for delivering the MENTUPP intervention in eight European countries and Australia. Each intervention country will aim to recruit at least 23 participants in 1–3 SMEs in one of the three high-risk sectors. The central aim of the pilot study will be to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and uptake of the MENTUPP intervention across the target SMEs. The findings will contribute to devising the protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) of the MENTUPP intervention. Findings from this study will also be used to inform the optimisation phase of the MENTUPP intervention which will aim to improve the materials and the implementation of the intervention as well as enhancing the evaluation strategy which will be employed for the cRCT.

scholarly journals Employees’ Perspectives on the Facilitators and Barriers to Engaging With Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace: Qualitative Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephany Carolan ◽  
Richard O de Visser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Intervention ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Occupational Setting ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Facilitators And Barriers ◽  
Workplace Setting

Background Prevalence rates of work-related stress, depression, and anxiety are high, resulting in reduced productivity and increased absenteeism. There is evidence that these conditions can be successfully treated in the workplace, but take-up of psychological treatments among workers is low. Digital mental health interventions delivered in the workplace may be one way to address this imbalance, but although there is evidence that digital mental health is effective at treating stress, depression, and anxiety in the workplace, uptake of and engagement with these interventions remains a concern. Additionally, there is little research on the appropriateness of the workplace for delivering these interventions or on what the facilitators and barriers to engagement with digital mental health interventions in an occupational setting might be. Objective The aim of this research was to get a better understanding of the facilitators and barriers to engaging with digital mental health interventions in the workplace. Methods Semistructured interviews were held with 18 participants who had access to an occupational digital mental health intervention as part of a randomized controlled trial. The interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the data. Results Digital mental health interventions were described by interviewees as convenient, flexible, and anonymous; these attributes were seen as being both facilitators and barriers to engagement in a workplace setting. Convenience and flexibility could increase the opportunities to engage with digital mental health, but in a workplace setting they could also result in difficulty in prioritizing time and ensuring a temporal and spatial separation between work and therapy. The anonymity of the Internet could encourage use, but that benefit may be lost for people who work in open-plan offices. Other facilitators to engagement included interactive and interesting content and design features such as progress trackers and reminders to log in. The main barrier to engagement was the lack of time. The perfect digital mental health intervention was described as a website that combined a short interactive course that was accessed alongside time-unlimited information and advice that was regularly updated and could be dipped in and out of. Participants also wanted access to e-coaching support. Conclusions Occupational digital mental health interventions may have an important role in delivering health care support to employees. Although the advantages of digital mental health interventions are clear, they do not always fully translate to interventions delivered in an occupational setting and further work is required to identify ways of minimizing potential barriers to access and engagement. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02729987; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02729987?term=NCT02729987& rank=1 (Archived at WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6wZJge9rt)

scholarly journals Employees� Perspectives on the Facilitators and Barriers to Engaging With Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephany Carolan ◽  
Richard O de Visser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Intervention ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Occupational Setting ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Facilitators And Barriers ◽  
Workplace Setting

BACKGROUND Prevalence rates of work-related stress, depression, and anxiety are high, resulting in reduced productivity and increased absenteeism. There is evidence that these conditions can be successfully treated in the workplace, but take-up of psychological treatments among workers is low. Digital mental health interventions delivered in the workplace may be one way to address this imbalance, but although there is evidence that digital mental health is effective at treating stress, depression, and anxiety in the workplace, uptake of and engagement with these interventions remains a concern. Additionally, there is little research on the appropriateness of the workplace for delivering these interventions or on what the facilitators and barriers to engagement with digital mental health interventions in an occupational setting might be. OBJECTIVE The aim of this research was to get a better understanding of the facilitators and barriers to engaging with digital mental health interventions in the workplace. METHODS Semistructured interviews were held with 18 participants who had access to an occupational digital mental health intervention as part of a randomized controlled trial. The interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the data. RESULTS Digital mental health interventions were described by interviewees as convenient, flexible, and anonymous; these attributes were seen as being both facilitators and barriers to engagement in a workplace setting. Convenience and flexibility could increase the opportunities to engage with digital mental health, but in a workplace setting they could also result in difficulty in prioritizing time and ensuring a temporal and spatial separation between work and therapy. The anonymity of the Internet could encourage use, but that benefit may be lost for people who work in open-plan offices. Other facilitators to engagement included interactive and interesting content and design features such as progress trackers and reminders to log in. The main barrier to engagement was the lack of time. The perfect digital mental health intervention was described as a website that combined a short interactive course that was accessed alongside time-unlimited information and advice that was regularly updated and could be dipped in and out of. Participants also wanted access to e-coaching support. CONCLUSIONS Occupational digital mental health interventions may have an important role in delivering health care support to employees. Although the advantages of digital mental health interventions are clear, they do not always fully translate to interventions delivered in an occupational setting and further work is required to identify ways of minimizing potential barriers to access and engagement. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02729987; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02729987?term=NCT02729987& rank=1 (Archived at WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6wZJge9rt)

scholarly journals Surveying the Role of Analytics in Evaluating Digital Mental Health Interventions for Transition-Aged Youth: Scoping Review (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Lo ◽  
Jenny Shi ◽  
Elisa Hollenberg ◽  
Alexxa Abi-Jaoudé ◽  
Andrew Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Usage Data

BACKGROUND Consumer-facing digital health interventions provide a promising avenue to bridge gaps in mental health care delivery. To evaluate these interventions, understanding how the target population uses a solution is critical to the overall validity and reliability of the evaluation. As a result, usage data (analytics) can provide a proxy for evaluating the engagement of a solution. However, there is paucity of guidance on how usage data or analytics should be used to assess and evaluate digital mental health interventions. OBJECTIVE This review aimed to examine how usage data are collected and analyzed in evaluations of mental health mobile apps for transition-aged youth (15-29 years). METHODS A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. A systematic search was conducted on 5 journal databases using keywords related to usage and engagement, mental health apps, and evaluation. A total of 1784 papers from 2008 to 2019 were identified and screened to ensure that they included analytics and evaluated a mental health app for transition-aged youth. After full-text screening, 49 papers were included in the analysis. RESULTS Of the 49 papers included in the analysis, 40 unique digital mental health innovations were evaluated, and about 80% (39/49) of the papers were published over the past 6 years. About 80% involved a randomized controlled trial and evaluated apps with information delivery features. There were heterogeneous findings in the concept that analytics was ascribed to, with the top 3 being engagement, adherence, and acceptability. There was also a significant spread in the number of metrics collected by each study, with 35% (17/49) of the papers collecting only 1 metric and 29% (14/49) collecting 4 or more analytic metrics. The number of modules completed, the session duration, and the number of log ins were the most common usage metrics collected. CONCLUSIONS This review of current literature identified significant variability and heterogeneity in using analytics to evaluate digital mental health interventions for transition-aged youth. The large proportion of publications from the last 6 years suggests that user analytics is increasingly being integrated into the evaluation of these apps. Numerous gaps related to selecting appropriate and relevant metrics and defining successful or high levels of engagement have been identified for future exploration. Although long-term use or adoption is an important precursor to realizing the expected benefits of an app, few studies have examined this issue. Researchers would benefit from clarification and guidance on how to measure and analyze app usage in terms of evaluating digital mental health interventions for transition-aged youth. Given the established role of adoption in the success of health information technologies, understanding how to abstract and analyze user adoption for consumer digital mental health apps is also an emerging priority.

scholarly journals A review and analysis of the components of potentially effective perinatal mental health interventions for infant development and mother-infant relationship outcomes

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Katherine Newton ◽  
Elizabeth Taylor Buck ◽  
Scott Weich ◽  
Lesley Uttley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Infant Development ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Perinatal Mental Health ◽  
Infant Outcomes ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Relationship Outcomes ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties

Abstract Children of mothers with serious mental health difficulties are at increased risk of developing mental health difficulties themselves in their own lifetime. Specialist interventions delivered in perinatal mental health services offer an opportunity to support the infant's development and long-term mental health. This review aimed to systematically evaluate the shared elements of successful perinatal mental health interventions that underpin improved outcomes for infants whose mothers experience perinatal mental health difficulties. Nine electronic databases were searched comprehensively for relevant controlled studies of perinatal mental health interventions, and a narrative synthesis undertaken to assess whether statistically significant benefits were noted. Sixteen studies, trialing 19 interventions, were analyzed using a narrative approach and grouped according to reported effectiveness. Eight interventions demonstrated significant improvements in infant outcomes and/or mother–infant relationship outcomes and were used to inform the analysis of the included interventions’ components. While the interventions identified were diverse, there were common components which potentially underpin successful interventions for infants whose mothers are experiencing mental health difficulties, including: facilitation of positive Mother×Infant interactions; helping mothers to understand their infant's perspective or inner world; and the use of video feedback.

scholarly journals Surveying the Role of Analytics in Evaluating Digital Mental Health Interventions for Transition-Aged Youth: Scoping Review

10.2196/15942 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. e15942
Author(s):  
Brian Lo ◽  
Jenny Shi ◽  
Elisa Hollenberg ◽  
Alexxa Abi-Jaoudé ◽  
Andrew Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Usage Data

Background Consumer-facing digital health interventions provide a promising avenue to bridge gaps in mental health care delivery. To evaluate these interventions, understanding how the target population uses a solution is critical to the overall validity and reliability of the evaluation. As a result, usage data (analytics) can provide a proxy for evaluating the engagement of a solution. However, there is paucity of guidance on how usage data or analytics should be used to assess and evaluate digital mental health interventions. Objective This review aimed to examine how usage data are collected and analyzed in evaluations of mental health mobile apps for transition-aged youth (15-29 years). Methods A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. A systematic search was conducted on 5 journal databases using keywords related to usage and engagement, mental health apps, and evaluation. A total of 1784 papers from 2008 to 2019 were identified and screened to ensure that they included analytics and evaluated a mental health app for transition-aged youth. After full-text screening, 49 papers were included in the analysis. Results Of the 49 papers included in the analysis, 40 unique digital mental health innovations were evaluated, and about 80% (39/49) of the papers were published over the past 6 years. About 80% involved a randomized controlled trial and evaluated apps with information delivery features. There were heterogeneous findings in the concept that analytics was ascribed to, with the top 3 being engagement, adherence, and acceptability. There was also a significant spread in the number of metrics collected by each study, with 35% (17/49) of the papers collecting only 1 metric and 29% (14/49) collecting 4 or more analytic metrics. The number of modules completed, the session duration, and the number of log ins were the most common usage metrics collected. Conclusions This review of current literature identified significant variability and heterogeneity in using analytics to evaluate digital mental health interventions for transition-aged youth. The large proportion of publications from the last 6 years suggests that user analytics is increasingly being integrated into the evaluation of these apps. Numerous gaps related to selecting appropriate and relevant metrics and defining successful or high levels of engagement have been identified for future exploration. Although long-term use or adoption is an important precursor to realizing the expected benefits of an app, few studies have examined this issue. Researchers would benefit from clarification and guidance on how to measure and analyze app usage in terms of evaluating digital mental health interventions for transition-aged youth. Given the established role of adoption in the success of health information technologies, understanding how to abstract and analyze user adoption for consumer digital mental health apps is also an emerging priority.

Adolescent Dropout from Brief Digital Mental Health Interventions Within and Beyond Randomized Trials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Cohen ◽  
Jessica L. Schleider
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Program Evaluation ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Completion Status ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Time Required

Objective: Many adolescents struggle to access appropriate mental health care due to structural or psychological barriers. Among those who do access an intervention, retention is a pressing concern. As a result, adolescents are less likely to benefit from an intervention. Although traditional barriers to participation (e.g., location, cost) are hypothetically reduced or removed in internet interventions, low retention is still common, particularly in unguided programs (those not involving a clinician). It is therefore key to determine what factors are associated with dropout in digital mental health interventions with adolescents both within and beyond the context of research studies. Methods: We compare completion rates from two projects evaluating self-guided, online single-session mental health interventions (SSIs) for adolescents. One was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which participants were paid for participation. The other was a program evaluation project in which participants were not paid for participation. We additionally compare SSI completion rates across various demographic groups and across baseline hopelessness levels. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in SSI completion status between the RCT (84.75% full-completers) and the program evaluation (36.86% full-completers), X2 (2, N =2436) = 583.5, p < .05. There were no significant differences in the baseline hopelessness scores across completion statuses in either study. There were no significant differences in full-completion rates across demographic groups in either project. Conclusion: Adolescents may be more likely to complete a brief digital mental health intervention if they are paid for participation. Additionally, it is possible that the brevity of SSIs reduces demographic disparities related to retention by minimizing the time required to complete an intervention.

scholarly journals Manipulating efficacy expectancies in an ambulatory smartphone-based digital placebo mental health intervention: a randomized controlled trial (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Stalujanis ◽  
Joel Neufeld ◽  
Martina Glaus Stalder ◽  
Angelo Belardi ◽  
Gunther Meinlschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Intervention ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Intervention ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Intention To Treat ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Mental Health Interventions ◽  
Efficacy Expectancies

BACKGROUND Smartphone-based mental health interventions provide new ways to treat mental disorders. There is certain evidence on the efficacy of such interventions. Placebo effects represent a substantial element of the mechanisms of action of face-to-face mental health interventions. OBJECTIVE We manipulated efficacy expectancies and investigated whether time trajectories of efficacy expectancies differed between conditions across a smartphone-based digital placebo mental health intervention. METHODS We conducted a randomized, controlled, single-blinded superiority trial with a multi-arm parallel design. Participants underwent a smartphone-based digital placebo mental health intervention for 20 consecutive days. We induced prospective efficacy expectancies by manipulating initial instructions on the purpose of the intervention and retrospective efficacy expectancies by manipulating feedback on the success of the intervention at days 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13. 132 healthy participants were randomized to four conditions: prospective expectancy only (n=33), retrospective expectancy only (n=33), combined expectancy (n=34), or control (n=32). Changes in efficacy expectancies were assessed with the Credibility Expectancy Questionnaire, at the introductory session and on intervention days 1, 7, 14, and 20. We performed our analyses for the intention-to-treat sample using a random effects model, with intervention day as time variable and condition as two factors: prospective expectancy (yes vs. no), and retrospective expectancy (yes vs.no), allowed to vary over participant and intervention day. RESULTS Credibility (b = -1.63, 95%confidence interval (CI) [-2.37, -0.89], P < 0.001) and expectancy (b = -0.77, 95%CI [-1.49, -0.05], P = 0.04) decreased across intervention days. For credibility and expectancy, we found significant three-way interactions intervention day*prospective expectancy*retrospective expectancy (b = 2.05, 95%CI [0.60, 3.50], P < 0.01 resp. b = 1.55, 95%CI [0.14, 2.95] P = 0.03). Efficacy expectancies decreased least in the combined expectancy and in the control condition, most in the prospective expectancy only and the retrospective expectancy only condition. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study investigating the induction of efficacy expectancies across a placebo smartphone-based mental health intervention. Efficacy expectancies decreased throughout intervention days and differed between conditions. Our findings may pave the way for diminishing and exploiting digital placebo effects and help to improve treatment efficacy of digital mental health interventions. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02365220. Registered February 18, 2015.

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