Digital Technology and Mental Health Interventions: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The growth of the Internet, mobile phones, social media and other digital technologies has changed our world in many ways. It has provided individuals with information that was previously only available to a select few. An example of the reach of technology is data that as of October 2012, there are over 6 billion phones worldwide (BBC, 2012). The availability of data in real time has presented hopes of intervening more efficiently and managing health problems by leveraging limited human resources. It also has an impact in changing the roles of providers and patients and in legal and ethical issues including privacy in digital health interactions. This paper will discuss why digital technology has received recent attention in the area of mental health, present some applications of technology for mental health to date, explore the challenges to full implementation in clinical settings, and present future opportunities for digital technologies.

El presente y futuro de la terapia psicosocial para personas vulnerables en España. Qué pueden aportar los teléfonos móviles

“…Consideran que existen limitaciones en las intervenciones tradicionales que podían ser abordadas por la implementación de soluciones tecnológicas, pero se refieren a dos factores concretos que impiden la eficacia de la intervención clínica: los limitados recursos humanos y la lenta difusión de tratamientos basados en la evidencia. Aguilera (2015) afirma que los teléfonos móviles permiten la ubicuidad geográfica; los modelos sencillos o estándar son atractivos para la salud mental y para las terapias pues son de bajo coste y siempre están presentes, permiten enviar y recibir datos, texto, audio y fotos; los teléfonos más avanzados o smartphone añaden Internet, aplicaciones programables de video, ubicación y movimiento facilitando datos de seguimiento espacial y temporal. Una investigación pionera es la de Aguilera y Muñoz (2011) los cuales, a través de mensajes de texto enviados al teléfono móvil, preguntaron al azar sobre el estado de ánimo de los pacientes durante todo el día; lo que ofrecía datos continuos al terapeuta para evaluar y afrontar las estrategias de terapia; por ejemplo se les pidió reflexionar sobre los pensamientos positivos o inútiles por el día o acerca del estado de ánimo; este sistema también permitió consultas sobre las actividades diarias, sobre sus interacciones sociales o sobre los patrones de sueño de los pacientes.…”

Mobile Phones and Psychosocial Therapies with Vulnerable People: a First State of the Art

“…Given this scenario, Aguilera [1] contends that digital technologies let therapists work with populations that are hard to reach through traditional channels and that online therapies are very low cost and convenient for both the therapist and the client. Aguilera [1] poses the following question: what has been done with online health interventions?…”

“…Aguilera [1] poses the following question: what has been done with online health interventions? And proceeds to answer that, in the years 2000, online interventions started as websites merely offering information and addressing themes such as depression, smoking, obesity or diabetes; yet the effectiveness of these interventions revealed significant limitations, as website based therapies reveal high dropout rates and many people left these interventions without completing them.…”

“…Mobile phones can collect objective data for psychological and social studies [1] but they need to be understood as a work tool by the psychosocial therapist. From the social intervention point of view we must understand that social work professionals cannot exist as mere facilitators of information or public aid managers; social work professionals must direct their intervention activities to achieve the biopsychosocial autonomy of those who are sick or at risk of exclusion [13, 19].…”

Design and acceptability of a psychosocial text messaging intervention for victims of gender-based violence

“…Mobile phones can collect objective data for psychological and social studies but they need to be understood as a work tool for the therapist. 2,3 Several researchers have conducted experimental studies on cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT) by sending text messages to mobile phones in various patient populations [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] but not specifically with female victims of gender violence. This group has a high need for mental health interventions and could benefit from these technologies.…”