Abstract
Online mental health interventions can benefit people experiencing a range of psychological difficulties, but attrition is a major problem in real-world deployments. We discuss strategies to reduce attrition, and present SilverCloud, a platform designed to provide more engaging online experiences. The paper presents the results of a practice-based clinical study in which 45 clients and 6 therapists used an online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme for depression. Pre and post-treatment assessments, using the Beck Depression Inventory, indicate a statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms, with a large effect size, for the moderate-to-severe clinical sub-sample receiving standalone online treatment (n=18). This group was the primary target for the intervention. A high level of engagement was also observed compared to a prior online intervention used within the same service. We discuss strategies for design in this area and consider how the quantitative and qualitative results contribute towards our understanding of engagement.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | ACM CHI 2012 |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
| Pages | 1421-1430 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781450310154 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | ACM CHI2012 - Austin, United States Duration: 5 May 2012 → 10 May 2012 |
Conference
| Conference | ACM CHI2012 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Austin |
| Period | 5/05/12 → 10/05/12 |
