Medicine & Health

Publication Search Results

Sort
Results per page
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Promoting engagement with digital mental health interventions for young people with suicidal ideation
    (2024) Gan, Zheng
    Thesis
    Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people, both globally and within Australia. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) have emerged as a potential solution that may curb suicide rates through mitigating suicidal ideation. However, poor engagement has hindered the adoption of DMHIs in healthcare settings due to concerns that suboptimal use may undermine their efficacy. The chief objective of this thesis was to develop and pilot a digital strategy for supporting engagement with LifeBuoy – a smartphone application (app) that helps young people with suicidal ideation. In the process, it (i) examined the link between engagement with DMHIs and clinical outcomes, (ii) synthesised existing literature on strategies for promoting engagement with DMHIs, (iii) explored user perceptions of engagement with DMHIs, (iv) designed a strategy to support engagement with LifeBuoy, and (v) examined implementation outcomes of the developed strategy. A robust positive association between engagement and post-intervention outcomes was found (Chapter 2). However, evidence on the efficacy of existing technology-supported strategies for promoting engagement with DMHIs was inconclusive (Chapter 3). According to users of mental health apps, strategies should provide digestible and practical content, be visually attractive, and leverage on platforms familiar to app users (Chapter 4). Specific ways in which principles of participatory design were applied to integrate lived experience and research to design a digital engagement strategy for LifeBuoy were described (Chapter 5). Finally, implementation data revealed moderate levels of support for the acceptability and appropriateness of the strategy (Chapter 6). This thesis has advanced the literature in several important ways. It established the relationship between engagement and outcomes in DMHIs. It extended existing evidence on the efficacy of technology-supported engagement strategies, noting that the lack of user involvement in the design process may be linked to the observed lack of efficacy. It was the first to explore users’ perceptions of the acceptability of various characteristics of engagement strategies and describe how participatory design principles could be applied in the design of a bespoke digital engagement strategy. Finally, it was the first study to examine implementation-related outcomes for an engagement strategy for a DMHI targeting suicidal ideation. Implications and future directions are discussed.