In this conversation we chat about how health professionals can use MOST to support young people while they’re waiting for care, to expand on their face-to-face sessions once they are in care, and to use after discharge from a service.
“It’s a big problem, even in face-to-face care, that people drop out after a few sessions and don’t engage in treatment for long enough to get the benefits of therapy, says head of research at Orygen Digital, Associate Professor Shane Cross.
Accessing mental healthcare continues to be a huge challenge for young Australians and while first wave digital mental health products promised improved and more equitable access to care along with reports of comparable efficacy to traditional face-to-face therapy across some conditions in trial settings, many of these interventions have seen low engagement rates among young people who seek support in real-world settings.
It’s an issue that the team behind MOST at Orygen Digital set out to overcome in the most recent roll out of their digital mental health service, which they say marks a new generation of digital mental health.
“The power of bringing the best of digital technology and the portability of that with human support is quite important – human supported digital interventions the lead to better engagement.”
– A/Professor Shane Cross, Head of Research at Orygen Digital
In this episode of Digital Mental Health Musings, we talk to Professor Cross and Savanah Whieldon, Orygen Digital’s Queensland Peer Work Coordinator, about the inspiring work that led to MOST (Moderated Online Social Therapy). It’s a platform that has been co-designed with young people and brings together a multi-disciplinary team of youth mental health experts, computer programmers, health informer experts, a web designer, writer and graphic designer to transform youth mental health through digital technology.
For MOST the future of digital intervention in healthcare is all about human collaboration, explains A/Professor Cross. In contrast to earlier phases of digital mental health, which tended to be didactic, web-based, stand-alone products, the team behind MOST looked at harnessing the popularity of social media to promote both engagement and social connectedness in youth mental healthcare. They also asked an important question: what does digital therapy look like in partnership with face-to-face youth mental healthcare?
The service evolved from a research project that started more than a decade ago. Envisioned to be an online therapeutic social network that makes a difference MOST now offers a safe community where young people feel secure to express themselves in the context of their mental health concerns, explains Savanah.
Described by young people who use the platform as a ‘safe version of online social media’, the MOST social network is moderated by peer mentors under the guidance of the MOST clinical team. It’s a space where young people report a sense of belonging, of feeling heard, validated and supported through clinically guided peer support within a community that is available to them round the clock.
Surrounding the moderated social network, MOST offers access to self-directed therapeutic journeys represented as comics and stories. There is also one-on-one peer worker support, careers counselling and one-on-one clinical support. It gives young Australians real people to talk to and gives them helpful, tailored information and practical tools that they can work through in their own time and space. At its heart, says Savanah, MOST is designed to facilitate collaborative care between digital services and face-to-face sessions.
In this conversation we chat about how health professionals can use MOST to support young people while they’re waiting for care, to expand on their face-to-face sessions once they are in care, and to use after discharge from a service.
“The platform doesn’t sit in isolation it actually sits within face-to-face services and that’s important because we know from the Royal Commission that the youth mental health system is under tremendous stress – not just from the perspectice of young people but for those clinicians that work within it,”
– A/Professor Shane Cross
“We know that it’s really hard for young people to access care, we know that even if you get into care, you can be waiting weeks if not months to actually see somebody face to face. If you’re a clinician working in one of those systems you know that puts tremendous pressure on the workforce because you’re there to help young people but feel it’s very hard to keep up with that demand.”
And even when young people do connect to services, Professor Cross says research shows that it’s quite hard to keep clients engaged to prevent premature drop out or discharge.
“Young people need support when they need it so when they don’t have access to their therapist, they can access the support of an online community and supportive resources that they have identified can help them with the challenges that they are facing. Young people can access the platform at any time of day or night – it helps enhance what a young person is already working on with their face-to-face clinician to help people continue with their recovery and also prevent them from becoming unwell again,”
– A/Professor Shane Cross
We also delve into the research behind MOST, who the service is best suited to, what young people have to say about the service and we take a look at the platform’s safety systems that allow potentially risky content to be flagged, reviewed and acted upon with evidence-based clinical interventions.
Who is A/Professor Shane Cross?
Shane is a Clinical Psychologist with 20 years of experience in adolescent and young adult mental health. He has a special focus on youth and digital mental health. He has held various roles which include providing clinical psychology services for young people and their families (inpatient and outpatient), clinical leadership (Clinical Director at two Sydney headspace services), digital mental health (InnoWell and MindSpot) and teaching (supervising Clinical Psychologists and lecturing at universities).
He is currently Head of Research at Orygen Digital and Clinical Associate Professor at the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of youth and digital mental health.
Who is Savannah Whieldon?
Savannah is Orygen Digital’s Queensland Peer Work Coordinator on MOST. She has been in the lived experience sector for seven years. Savannah has worked in various youth mental health organisations before landing at Orygen Digital and is excited to be working in a space where she can combine her passion for peer work and digital mental health.
Learn more about Orygen Digital at: https://www.orygen.org.au/Our-Research/Research-Areas/Orygen-Digital
Learn more about MOST at: https://most.org.au/
Listen to the full conversation below. You can also access Digital Mental Health Musings on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Deezer.
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