How we can leverage tech for better mental health care
When young people find community and information around mental health issues, it’s often on the internet. Although sometimes hard to fact-check, firsthand experiences and informal mental health content on social media can be really relatable. I found words to talk about my anxiety when I read a Buzzfeed listicle of tweets about social anxiety and recognized myself in each one — and then, when I was able to start therapy, I took that new understanding with me. Formal mental health education and advocacy sites, like NIMH (the National Institute of Mental Health) and NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), should consider using or referring to this type of accessible knowledge so that young people searching for reliable mental health information can feel seen and understood.
Getting care after initial awareness of a mental health concern can also happen through technology, thanks to teletherapy, crisis counseling over text or chat, video support groups, and other online resources. During the early pandemic, telehealth availability was greatly expanded to protect people from illness. This access was long overdue for disabled people, folks without reliable transportation, people living in healthcare deserts, and everyone who’s ever had trouble accessing care. Responsibly using technology to advance access doesn’t have to mean removing all face-to-face interaction; instead, it can mean greater flexibility and more options. Maintaining telehealth offerings from brick-and-mortar providers and expanding insurance coverage and availability for services like Joon will ensure that these are available to everyone.
As I’ve learned through work on transforming the 911 system, video care is also being used in crisis situations like mental health calls to 911. When there aren’t enough crisis de-escalators available, first responders can give a person in crisis a tablet to video chat with one. This technology can facilitate expansion of crisis intervention or alternative response teams in rural areas and smaller jurisdictions, which is essential for decriminalizing mental illness. Protecting people experiencing a mental health crisis should be a priority for public health and police departments.
Finally, there are an incredible number of apps available for mental health support — from meditation and mood journal apps; to trackers for self-harm, substance abuse, and eating disorder recovery; to databases that help you find in-person services. Where needed, grant funding should go to the best of these apps to keep them free and high-quality.
As with in-person mental health care, these technologies are only useful if people can find and access them. Mental health nonprofits and service providers should conduct marketing and direct outreach to libraries, schools/universities, social service agencies, medical facilities, etc. to make people aware of the many available resources. Rural areas could consider providing Wi-Fi hotspots or cellular data plans for people to access telehealth services, and across the country these services should be given more public and philanthropic funding so they can be provided at low or no cost to users. We have the power and the technology to dramatically improve mental health in our generation — we just need to make it a collective priority.
If you’re looking for digital mental health resources, you can:
- text Crisis Text Line at 741741 to talk to a crisis counselor for free,
- search for a therapist that suits your needs in the Inclusive Therapists or Open Counseling databases, or
- find articles and more resources on a site like Mental Health is Health (one of my personal favorites).
