Survey finds concerns AND hope to address growing mental health needs due to the covid pandemic

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Dig­i­tal providers come to the fore to sup­port glob­al men­tal health dur­ing pan­dem­ic (press release):

Research pub­lished today shows how dig­i­tal providers are com­ing togeth­er to sup­port the men­tal health needs of mil­lions of users unable to access tra­di­tion­al ser­vices dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors of this study believe that dig­i­tal providers can help address delays in men­tal health­care, and deliv­er front­line ser­vices by offer­ing sup­port, treat­ment, and real-time mon­i­tor­ing of men­tal health. Such ser­vices can also detect how peo­ple react and respond to events that have an impact on their lives. For exam­ple, one peer men­tal health sup­port net­work report­ed a sub­stan­tial increase in the num­ber of sui­ci­dal posts soon after schools closed in Eng­land in March 2020.

Co-author, Thomas R Insel, MD, co-founder of Human­est Care, said: “Just as the viral pan­dem­ic has accel­er­at­ed vac­cine devel­op­ment, this glob­al cri­sis has brought togeth­er men­tal health experts from the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor around the world to address what is sure­ly a sec­ond pan­dem­ic trig­gered by loss, anx­i­ety, and social iso­la­tion. This report cap­tures the scale and scope of this emerg­ing men­tal health crisis.”

ORCHA (the Organ­i­sa­tion for the Review of Care and Health Apps), the world’s lead­ing health app eval­u­a­tion and advi­sor organ­i­sa­tion, was also a co-author of this paper. Found­ing CEO, Liz Ashall-Payne, said: “We’ve watched the use of men­tal health apps increase by over 200% dur­ing lock­down. This valu­able inter­na­tion­al project shines a light on a cri­sis in the mak­ing and we must con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate to ensure cit­i­zens are sup­port­ed in every way possible.”

At the start of the first lock­down, many providers saw an increase in the num­ber of users search­ing for infor­ma­tion and resources about men­tal health issues … ORCHA observed a 7,500% increase in search­es for health-apps relat­ed to the pre­ven­tion of self-harm, a 176% increase for apps ded­i­cat­ed to the man­age­ment of depres­sion, an 86% increase in search­es for men­tal health apps for the treat­ment of anx­i­ety, and a 328% increase in search­es for apps relat­ed to sleep.

The Study:

Ear­ly Warn­ing Signs of a Men­tal Health Tsuna­mi: A Coor­di­nat­ed Response to Gath­er Ini­tial Data Insights From Mul­ti­ple Dig­i­tal Ser­vices Providers (Fron­tiers in Dig­i­tal Health). From the Abstract:

  • Intro­duc­tion: The imme­di­ate impact of coro­n­avirus 2019 (COVID-19) on mor­bid­i­ty and mor­tal­i­ty has raised the need for accu­rate and real-time data mon­i­tor­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The aim of this study is to doc­u­ment the ini­tial obser­va­tions from mul­ti­ple dig­i­tal ser­vices providers dur­ing the COVID-19 cri­sis, espe­cial­ly those relat­ed to men­tal health and well-being.
  • Meth­ods: We used email and social media to announce an urgent call for sup­port. Dig­i­tal men­tal health ser­vices providers (N = 46), finan­cial ser­vices providers (N = 4), and oth­er rel­e­vant dig­i­tal data source providers (N = 3) respond­ed with quan­ti­ta­tive and/or qual­i­ta­tive data insights. Peo­ple with lived expe­ri­ence of dis­tress, as ser­vice users/consumers, and car­ers are includ­ed as co-authors.
  • Results: This study pro­vides proof-of-con­cept of the via­bil­i­ty for researchers and pri­vate com­pa­nies to work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly toward a com­mon good. Dig­i­tal ser­vices providers report­ed a diverse range of men­tal health con­cerns. A recur­ring obser­va­tion is that demand for dig­i­tal men­tal health sup­port has risen, and that the nature of this demand has also changed since COVID-19, with an appar­ent increased pre­sen­ta­tion of anx­i­ety and loneliness.

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