How Digital Mental Health and Peer Support Can Help: Insights from People Who Use And Create Them

What is it about?

Digital mental health and peer support can provide more accessible help for mental health needs. Digital mental health offers online support and resources for wellbeing (e.g. education, professional support, monitoring of mental health). Some platforms include "peer support" where non-professionals can share their experiences, offer and receive support from others. However, we don't fully understand how these platforms work in real-life settings, from how people start using them to their long-term effects. To learn more, we created a "Theory of Change" which aimed to understand what happens from when an individual begins using a digital mental health platform and its long-term effects. We used the Togetherall platform to recruit people who use, work for, and refer others to the platform. Togetherall offers members a safe online space through professional monitoring of posts and engaging with safeguarding procedures (e.g. messaging members directly and following protocols). Members can use educational resources, monitor their mental wellbeing and engage with other members via messaging or posting more publicly on the forums. The "Theory of Change" was developed with input from 77 people through online workshops, focus groups, interviews, and surveys. These sessions helped us understand what makes these platforms work, what challenges they face, and what benefits they bring. Our Theory of Change shows three key paths in how digital mental health and peer support work. These included the experiences of the person using the platform, the person referring others to the platform and those who work for and maintain the platform. We found that getting people to use these platforms is a major challenge. Reasons people use them include filling gaps in existing support, connecting with others, and learning new skills. Furthermore, we found the type of user affects how they interact with the platform and how others respond to them. Some users prefer to observe interactions while others can be very interactive with the social side of the platform. The people we interviewed thought how others respond to posts could lead to more or less posting on the platform. Bad experiences (e.g. finding it difficult to use the platform, others not responding to their posts) when using the platform was thought to lead to people disengaging from the platform. Overall, the platforms are seen as positive, providing safe spaces, improving wellbeing, and helping users feel connected. However, understanding long-term impact is tough because these platforms often aim to prevent problems rather than fix them. Users noted that issues like internet access could be barriers. More research is needed to better engage users, improve their experience, and find ways to measure the platform's impact.

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Photo by Shayna Douglas on Unsplash

Photo by Shayna Douglas on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, more people need mental health support. Online platforms that offer education and peer support are becoming more popular because they can provide quick help and reduce the burden on traditional mental health services. Although these services are becoming more popular, little is understood about how they work from beginning to long-term use or end of use. Understanding how these platforms work for people can help us understand what works, what does not work and what we need to know more about. Our research highlighted how these platforms can be used in different ways and can produce different benefits to the individual using them. Our research highlighted where further research is needed - to understand how we can improve and support engagement with platforms, learning further about how users use and understand the platforms, as well as supporting them with mental health literacy from the beginning of using the platform. We also recognised that due to the nature of these platforms being preventative, it can be challenging to understand the longer term outcomes and more research is required to understand this fully.