What we’ve been up to in 2024

What we’ve been up to in 2024

As we welcome in the new year we wanted to take a moment to look back on 2024, sharing some of our noteworthy milestones and achievements.

The eMHPrac team have been very busy in 2024, developing new resources, presenting at conferences across the nation and internationally, and supporting health practitioners across Australia to access and use digital mental health in their work. Our dedicated team has been working hard to guide practitioners through the ever-evolving digital mental health landscape and increase confidence and uptake of digital mental health resources.

eMHPrac in the Community

We love getting to meet and connect with people in the mental health community throughout Australia, to share knowledge about digital mental health, the latest innovations and what health practitioners actually need to incorporate these tools into everyday practice.

This year we were able to participate in 21 national conferences reaching over 8,500 delegates. Our team enjoyed chatting with many health practitioners and support workers at our trade booths and sharing resources to help you find the best digital services to enhance your work. We were also able to present at many of these conferences, sharing deeper insights into the many ways digital mental health services can help, and strategies for how to use them in practice.

We also got the opportunity to connect with the international digital mental health community this year, with eMHPrac Director Heidi Sturk attending and presenting at 2 international conferences with over 880 delegates. To hear more about her learnings about digital mental health in the international mental health landscape read our blog here.

In addition to conference presentations, we delivered 133 training presentations, webinars and workshops across Australia to over 10,580 health practitioners and SEWB (Social and Emotional Wellbeing) workers.

The eMHPrac team at Black Dog Institute released 13 new webinars in 2024, exploring topics like; youth mental health, ADHD, allyship, and more. These webinars were recorded live throughout the year and are now available on-demand through the Black Dog Institute Health Professionals Education and Resource Hub.

In addition to connecting and distributing resources at conferences, our guides and fact sheets are also available to download or order for free through our website. In 2024 we sent more that 20,080 hard copies of our resources to health practitioners and support workers across Australia, and saw more than 16,350 digital downloads.

Resource Development

Each year we endeavour to create more resources and improve navigation for health practitioners and support workers to access appropriate digital mental health to use in their practice with patients and clients. This year we unveiled seven new categories for organising digital mental health resources; Psychological treatment, system management and wellbeing tool, peer support, counselling, information, screening and referral, and social and emotional wellbeing. These new categories feature in all of our resource development, helping health practitioners find resources by the unique functions they serve. We also added new topics and audiences to our resource guide including; OCD, Neurodivergence, and more.

This year we released a new and improved edition of our Health Practitioners Guide to Digital Mental Health Resources and Services. This guide provides a list of free or low cost, evidence-based, Australian digital mental health resources. We also updated our popular Digital Mental Health brochures for adults, adolescents and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and Managing Mental Health Online fact sheet.

In addition to updated many of our existing resources, we’ve released several new resources including a fact sheet on the research evidence for digital mental health, and three new brochures on digital mental health for; new and expecting parents, children (up to 11yrs) and their parents and caregivers, and alcohol and other drug use and addictive behaviours.

The last year also saw the development of several new resources for the WellMob website including 5 new resource sheets for workers, providing short cuts to the best resources for sleep, vaping, workplace wellbeing, self-care, and how to be a good ally. WellMob also released two new video testimonials from health workers sharing their own experiences using WellMob in their work.

Digital Mental Health Musings Podcast

In 20204 we brought listeners the fourth season of Digital Mental Health Musings, our podcast bringing health practitioners the latest news and expert opinions in digital mental health. This season we introduced a brand new series ‘On the Ground’ where we spoke with health practitioners sharing their personal experiences using digital mental health resources in practice with clients and patients. We also took listeners behind the scenes of 3 new digital mental health resources and spoke with experts about the ways digital resources can become part of regular practice and aid in professional development.

The Digital Mental Health Musings podcast received over 1,420 listens this year, with the most popular episodes from the latest season being:

Finding it hard to use digital mental health in practice? Implementation Science and help you understand why – and provide steps to make it easier

With Dr Marlena Klaic

Decoding some of the common attitudes and behaviours health professionals express about digital mental health, and ways to overcome common barriers to using digital tools.

Listen now

4 tips to help you be more creative and flexible about tailoring digital mental health to help you understand why – and provide steps to make it easier

On the Ground with Psychologist Dr Lyn O’Grady

Respected child and adolescent psychologist Dr Lyn O’Grady shares her personal experiences using digital mental health with clients and families.

Listen now

Digital mental health and the power of personal stories

On the Ground with Diane Cass

Social Worker Diane Cass discusses the different ways she uses digital mental health tools to help her clients connect with other people’s stories and journeys.

Listen now

You can listen to all past episodes here to hear more about all the major developments in digital mental health, or search and subscribe wherever you get your podcast.

Keeping You in the Know

In addition to our goal of increasing health professional access to and use of digital mental health, we also endeavour to help you keep up with all the latest news and developments in this space. Our monthly newsletter and weekly blog posts helped you stay on the cutting edge of digital mental health research, policy and services in Australia.

In 2024 we release 12 monthly editions of our newsletter to over 3,585 subscribers across Australia, including psychologists, GPs, social workers, allied health professionals, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing workers, and more.

The eMHPrac team released more than 50 weekly blogs in 2024, sharing the best digital mental health services, new developments, tips and strategies, professional development resources and more. These blogs provide bite-sized insights into topical discussions and specific scenarios, providing a stepping stone for health workers into the world of digital mental health.

Finally, we released 21 Being Well Blogs by Dr Jan Orman and other guest authors from the Black Dog Institute. This series explores mental health topics and shares insights from health professionals for health professionals.

2024 was a big year and we can’t wait to keep building on our knowledge, share our learning to increase uptake of digital mental health resources, and connect with more health practitioners in 2025.

If you are interested in training or if there is anything else you would like to know about digital mental health for health professionals, you can contact us here.