NCT04536935

Mobile Mental Health Apps for Suicide Prevention

Acceptability, Usability and Effectiveness of Mental Health Apps for Suicide Prevention in Essential Workers and the Unemployed During SARS-CoV-2

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 838 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Washington · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Access to mental health care by essential workers and the unemployed during the COVID19 pandemic has been challenging. Usual access to mental health care is limited by social distancing, and for many now unemployed due to closures of businesses, insurance is insufficient to cover the costs of mental health care. For these individuals who are at risk for suicide (isolation, unemployment, financial crisis plus past suicide attempts, significant mental health challenges), access to care is crucial and many maybe turning to online and accessible interventions, such as mental health apps and other online resources. Indeed, organizations such as the VA have already created free access mobile applications for mental health in anticipation of this need. Using Psyberguide, the investigators will identify the top ten free apps that address mental health issues and conduct a nation-wide evaluation of these apps with participants who are essential workers and unemployed with risk for suicide. Participants will first be surveyed about which strategies they have used to manage mental health issues, what apps and online tools they have used, and what usability challenges they have faced. The investigators will then ask a random sample of participant to engage in a randomized trial of these top-rated apps for 4 weeks. Apps will be rated on usability, acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness. Results from this trial will be quickly disseminated through several avenues: (1) the UWAC website and ALACRITY Centers network; (2) through CREATIV Lab's partnership with Mental Health America; (3) through the UW Center for Suicide Prevention and Recovery (CSPAR) and partnerships with other suicide focused organizations including Forefront, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, that American Association of Suicidology, the Rocky Mountain MIRECC, and the Defense Suicide Prevention Office and (4) through local partnership with King County and WA state contact tracers.

Detailed description

Participants will be recruited nationally via Prolific. Investigators will aim to recruit 1,000 participants in the clinical trial who are essential workers and/or unemployed due to COVID-19 and have a past history of mental health issues or experiencing suicide ideation motivational risk factors to be randomized (250 per group) to one of the four apps. They will be asked to download their assigned app and use it for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of use, participants will be asked to provide an evaluation of acceptability, feasibility and usability of the app, how often they used the app, and if they found the app helpful. Participants will also be asked to complete clinical outcome measures.

Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Emotional Regulation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mobile Mental Health App - 1	Free mobile mental health application that focuses on meditation
BEHAVIORAL	Mobile Mental Health App - 2	Free mobile mental health application that assists with coping with COVID-19
BEHAVIORAL	Mobile Mental Health App - 3	Free mobile mental health application that focuses on positive psychology.
BEHAVIORAL	Mobile Mental Health App - 4	Free mobile application that addresses mental health issues through mood tracking

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-11-30
• Primary completion: 2021-06-20
• Completion: 2021-06-20
• First posted: 2020-09-03
• Last updated: 2022-10-20
• Results posted: 2022-10-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States