About
Three-quarters of mental health disorders begin before the age of 24, however, only one out of every five of those youth receive mental health treatment. Technology has the potential to serve as a supplement or alternative to traditional mental health care, and in this study, we sought to uncover the preferences of youth (age 14-24). Previous research has shown that telemental health (TMH) resources are effective for screening as well as providing education and treatment to individuals who are struggling with depression, anxiety and/or suicidal ideations.
In this mixed-methods study, conducted from 2015-2017, we first used a series of online surveys to understand the perceptions of a diverse panel of experts. Results were used to guide the development of focus groups, which were conducted with mental health clinicians and educators, parents of youth, youth ages 14-18 and youth ages 19-24. In the final phase of the study, the perceptions of a general population of youth were assessed using two methods: interactive survey events at high schools and an online survey of college students. Technologies such as websites, mobile apps, social media, text messaging, online chat and video chat were explored, including resources provided: by licensed mental health professionals, by people trained to communicate with those with mental health needs, through peer support and for self-help.
We found that many teens and young adults in northeast Indiana are struggling with mental health and not currently receiving treatment, like many young people across the country. Most of our study participants were unaware of existing TMH resources but expressed a willingness to use the various types of technologies we presented. Positive perceptions about these resources open the door for TMH to be used as supplemental support in times of crisis or distress. Our findings can be used to guide the use of TMH solutions to target specific populations for effective and tailored care. Providing access to evidence-based resources that allow youth to discuss their issues informally, on their own time, mutually and anonymously may be promising routes for providing support for specific symptoms, stressors, or demographics among young people who need mental health interventions. Providers should view TMH resources as viable options for care support and should consider recommending use depending on patient needs. TMH resources, however, must not be viewed as a panacea for patient mental health care. These resources require additional research to determine how to appropriately recommend them to patients, especially for those in acute crisis.
Partners
Funding
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Optimizing Value in Health Care: Consumer-Focused Trends from the Field: 73055 [link]
Publications and presentations
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Pater, J. A., Coupe, A., Miller, A.D., Reining, L. E., Drouin, M., & Toscos, T. (2020). Design opportunities and challenges for app-based telemental health technologies for teens and young adults. In S. A. Munson, S. M. Schueller, & R. Arriaga (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th EAI international conference on pervasive computing technologies for health care (pp. 188–200). Association for Computing Machinery. [link]
- Toscos, T., Coupe, A., Flanagan, M., Drouin, M., Carpenter, M., Reining, L., Roebuck, A., & Mirro, M. J. (2019). Teens using screens for help: Impact of suicidal ideation, anxiety, and depression levels on youth preferences for telemental health resources. Journal of Medical Internet Research Mental Health, 6(6), Article e13230. [link]
- Toscos, T., Drouin, M., Flanagan, M., Carpenter, M., Kerrigan, C., Carpenter, C., Mere, C., & Haaff, M. (2019). Audience response systems and missingness trends: Using interactive polling systems to gather sensitive health information from youth. Journal of Medical Internet Research Formative Research, 3 (3), Article e13798. [link]
- Drouin, M., Reining, L., Flanagan, M., Carpenter, M., & Toscos, T. (2018). College students in distress: Can social media be a source of social support? College Student Journal, 52(4), 494–504. [link]
- Howard, A., Flanagan, M., Drouin, M., Carpenter, M., Chen, E.M., Duchovic, C., & Toscos, T. (2018) Adult consumers’ and mental health professionals’ perceptions of telemental health for youth: A Delphi study. Journal of American Medical Informatics Association Open, 1(1), 67–74. [link]
- Toscos, T., Carpenter, M., Drouin, M., Roebuck, A., Kerrigan, C., & Mirro, M. (2018). College students' experiences with, and willingness to use, different types of telemental health resources: Do gender, depression/anxiety, or stress levels matter? Telemedicine and e-Health, 24(12), 998–1005. [link]
- Reining, L., Drouin, M., Toscos, T., Mirro, M. J. (2018, May 29 – June 2). College students in distress: Can social media be a source of social support? [Poster presentation]. American College Health Association, Washington, D.C., United States.
- Chen, E. M., Toscos, T., Carpenter, M., Lehmann, G., Mirro, M. J., & Flanagan, M. E. (2018, March 22–25). Addressing the mental health needs of medical students: Does telemental health have potential? [Poster presentation]. American Medical Women’s Association 103rd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
- Toscos, T., Adamson, W., Rodriguez, M., Holliday, R. What do patients want from telehealth? Invited panelist, The Robert Graham Center Primary Care Forum, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC November 9, 2017
- Toscos, T. (2017, November 4–7). Help-seeking & technology: Perceptions of adolescents and young adults [Podium presentation]. American Medical Informatics Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., United States.
- Wright, M., Carpenter, C., Duchovic, C., Kerrigan, C., & Toscos, T. (2016, March 30 – April 2). Using the Delphi technique: Building consensus to identify telemental health solutions for youth accessing mental health services[HL1] [Podium presentation]. 49th Annual Conference of the American Association of Suicidology, Chicago, IL, United States.
- Parkview Health. (2017, October 23). Using Technology to Address Mental Health. [link]
Press
- Collado, M., Oakman, T., & Shah, M. N. (2017, September 26). To Improve Health Care, How Do We Build Trust And Respect For Patients? Health Affairs. [link]
- WANE Staff Reports. (2016, January 26). Grant aims to lower teen suicide rate in Indiana. WANE-TV. [link]
- Franklin, T. (2016, January 25). Parkview Research Center gets grant to tackle teen and young adult suicide. WOWO. [link]
- Journal Gazette. (2016, January 25). Research center gets $300,000 grant.