10.G. Workshop: Digital interventions for improving public mental health

Abstract

Abstract While current routine mental health services provide a range of treatment options for individuals with mental health conditions, specialized support remains difficult to access and tailoring interventions to service users' needs remains challenging. Similarly, the use of, and access to, measures for prevention and mental health promotion continues to be limited, as these are often not tailored to individual needs, preferences, and real-world settings. There is increasing interest in utilizing digital health technologies for improving public mental health provision (i.e., mental health promotion, prevention and treatment of mental disorders) as they allow for adaptive, scalable, real-time, and real-world delivery of intervention components in individuals' daily life. This has driven the development of novel internet-based (eHealth) and app-based mobile health (mHealth) interventions for various mental health outcomes of which ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) represent a powerful approach. To accomplish this, novel research concepts (e.g., living labs) are increasingly being used to develop, optimize, evaluate, and implement digital interventions in routine public mental health provision through a transdisciplinary approach that involves users from the target population and relevant stakeholders throughout the research process to facilitate co-production and lowering barriers of implementation. The workshop's objective is to exemplify the multifaceted use of digital intervention in areas of public mental health and diverse communities and settings. This will include a) novel approaches to modifying continuum beliefs about mental health and an online anti-stigma intervention, b) an EMI to reduce suicide risk among adolescents (EMIRA), c) a self-Help app for Syrian refugees with posttraumatic stress (Sanadak), d) a location-based game to promote (mental) health literacy of adolescents (Nebolus), and e) an artificial intelligence-informed mHealth training for mental health promotion and prevention in adolescents and young adults (AI4U). The discussion will be led by Prof. Steffi Riedel-Heller, MD, MPH, and will focus on the benefits and opportunities afforded by digital technologies in public mental health provision. Key messages Digital interventions signal great promise for improving public mental health. There is a need to carefully evaluate digital interventions before implementation or making them publicly available.