We understands the demands on time for health practitioners and organisations. The digital mental health landscape is a vastly changing environment and it can be difficult to keep up-to-date with all the new services and those which are no longer around. Here is a snapshot of some of the major changes to the digital mental health landscape in 2023.
New Services
In the last year many new services have popped up. The following services were added to our Service Directory in 2023.
Dadspace
A free website to support the mental and emotional wellbeing of dads who are expecting or have just welcomed a baby into their life, including an online treatment program for anxiety and depression.
13YARN
13 92 76 (24/7)
Australia’s first Indigenous-led crisis helpline providing free, culturally safe and dedicated phone support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people going through a tough time or in crisis.
Sleep Ninja
https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/resources-support/digital-tools-apps/sleep-ninja/
A Sleep hygiene and CBT based app developed by Black Dog Institute for 12 to 16 year olds with mild to moderate sleep difficulties.
Beyond Silence
https://www.beyondsilence.org.au/
A website containing 6 interactive modules to help women victim/survivors of intimate partner sexual violence to name the abuse and seek support.
Updates to Existing Services
Digital mental health services are constantly developing and updating their offerings. The following services all added new services in the last year.
MindSpot
The MindSpot Clinic includes a range of client and clinician resources in addition to their online treatment programs. This year they added ‘The Big 5’ a self-assessment sheet working through activities that improve everyday mental health. It includes suggestions and examples as ideas we can use to do these activities more frequently.
THIS WAY UP
THIS WAY UP now offers multilingual coping tips and worksheets including: Five simple steps to calm your emotions, Effective ways to express yourself, Five helpful steps for tackling your problems, and more. These resources are available in Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.
MumSpace
The MumSpace website now includes a clinician portal, helping clinicians keep up to date on their client’s progress in their online treatment for postnatal depression and anxiety.
Counselling Online
https://www.counsellingonline.org.au/
Counselling Online now offers online self-help modules, and moderated peer-support forums.
SANE Australia
SANE now provides a range of peer support packages and a service matching consumers to the correct package.
Lifeline
13 11 14
Lifeline has extended their support hours, now offering 24/7 crisis phone, webchat and SMS support.
Kids Helpline
1800 551 800
Kids Helpline now offers a new moderated peer support forum called My Circle, supporting young people and their parents with a range of issues.
ReachOut Next Step
The ReachOut Next Steps feature has been simplified to a brief 3-item quiz, linking young people to face-to-face and digital mental health services in their state.
Discontinued Services
Unfortunately in 2023 the following services have been discontinued.
- Autism Launchpad
- iBobbly
- Living Well app
- The Check-in app
- The Desk
- While I’m Away
- Chat to Kit
- New Roots
- Ray’s Night Out
- HeadGear [discontinued for android devices]
- Butterfly Foundation Chat to Kit
eMHPrac Partner Websites
This year Head to Health, the national mental health website, launched its new and improved website with a host of new enhanced featured tailored to support health professionals. The updated website includes:
- Improved service navigation
- Expanded program and service options
- A new online quiz for help seekers
- Head to Health phone service for mental health advice and support
- Tools and information to make the transition to blended care more seamless
- New information pages tailored to health professionals
- A streamlined service finder for health professionals
In addition to the Head to Health website launch, our partners at the Black Dog Institute launched a new Health Professional Resource and Education Hub, connecting you to online programs, resources and primary care information on mental health. The hub offers health professionals a range of evidence-based online resources including:
- Live webinars
- Recorded webinars and online modules
- Podcast series
- Informational PDFs and websites
- The latest Black Dog Institute news
- Individual training records
The Health Professional Resource and Education Hub also provides health professionals with the space to connect with each other through the Mental Health community of Practice. You can exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences with peers via the moderated forums.
WellMob are constantly reviewing and adding new services to their website. This year they have added almost 100 social and emotional wellbeing resources to their library of over 390 online resources. WellMob also introduced a range of resource sheets for workers providing short-cuts to the best resources for common wellbeing issues to use with clients and patients, families, communities and carers. The resource sheets cover a range of topics including;
- Alcohol
- Anxiety
- Cultural identity
- Depression
- Drugs and smoking
- Gender identity
- Parenting
- Referendum self-care
- Sleep
- Suicide prevention
- Understanding and healing from trauma
- Understanding social and emotional wellbeing
- Understanding the impact of colonisation
Digital Mental Health Safety and Quality Standards
The Digital Mental Health Safety and Quality Standards are a national standard to assess the quality, care and safety of Australian digital mental health services. They include 59 actions related to clinical and technical aspects of digital mental health services, with the aim of improving the quality of service provision and protect users from harm.
This year the National Digital Safety Standards began approving services. Digital mental health services seeking accreditation must go through a rigorous assessment process to demonstrate evidence on how they are meeting the necessary safety and quality requirements. The following services have all received accreditation in the last year:
On Our Reading Radar in 2023
At eMHPrac we like to keep our finger on the pulse of all the latest research on digital mental health. This year the rise of research in AI in digital mental health was notable, as well as the novel use of digital interventions in major health services. The following papers were on our reading radar in 2023.
Reviews:
The following review papers were published in 2023:
- CBT-informed psychological interventions for adult patients with anxiety and depression symptoms: A narrative review of digital treatment options
- Human contact in internet-based interventions for depression: A pre-registered replication and meta-analysis of randomized trials
- Digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Digital Mental Health in Practice:
The following papers were of interest to eMHPrac for their applications of digital interventions in practice:
- How to e-mental health: a guideline for researchers and practitioners using digital technology in the context of mental health
- Integrating digital interventions with clinical practice in youth mental health services
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of performance of wearable artificial intelligence in detecting and predicting depression
- The Use of Virtual Reality Interventions to Promote Positive Mental Health: Systematic Literature Review
This list of services is for information purposes only – a clinician should thoroughly evaluate a service before recommending it to a client. This list is not exhaustive and represents a selection of resources that can be found on eMHPrac’s website.
To find out more, please visit https://www.emhprac.org.au/ or for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing tools visit https://wellmob.org.au/.
eMHPrac provides education, training, and guidance to health practitioners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers around digital mental health.
For consumers wanting digital mental health support, please visit the Head to Health portal https://www.headtohealth.gov.au/.
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