JMIR mental health
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In-person motivational interventions increase engagement with evidence-based cessation treatments among smokers with schizophrenia, but access to such interventions can be limited because of workforce shortages and competing demands in mental health clinics. The use of digital technology to deliver interventions can increase access, but cognitive impairments in schizophrenia may impede the use of standard digital interventions. We developed an interactive, multimedia, digital motivational decision support system for smokers with schizophrenia (Let's Talk About Smoking). We also digitalized a standard educational pamphlet from the National Cancer Institute (NCI Education). Both were tailored to reduce cognitive load during use. ⋯ The interactive, multimedia intervention was not more effective than the static, text-based intervention among smokers with schizophrenia. Both tailored digital interventions resulted in levels of treatment engagement and quit attempts that were similar to findings from previous studies of in-person interventions, confirming the potential role of digital interventions to educate and motivate smokers with schizophrenia to use cessation treatment and to quit smoking. These findings indicate that additional cessation treatment is needed after brief education or motivational interventions, and that cessation treatment should be adjusted for people with cognitive impairment.
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Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) increases treatment access for adolescents with anxiety; however, completion rates of iCBT programs are typically low. Understanding adolescents' experiences with iCBT, what program features and changes in anxiety (minimal clinically important difference [MCID]) are important to them, may help explain and improve iCBT program use and impact. ⋯ Respondents reported positive experiences and changes in their anxiety with Breathe; however, their reports were not correlated with program use. Breathe respondents identified program design and delivery factors that help explain their experiences and use of iCBT and inform program improvements. Future studies can apply our measures to compare user experiences between internet-based interventions, interpret treatment outcomes and improve treatment decision making for adolescents with anxiety.
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The acceptability of electronic mental (e-mental) health apps has already been studied. However, the attitudes of medical experts, students, and patients taking into account their knowledge of and previous experiences with e-mental health apps have not been investigated. ⋯ As opposed to patients, medical experts and students lack knowledge of and experience with e-mental health apps. If present, the experiences were assessed positively. However, experts show a more open-minded attitude with less fear of risks. Although some risks were perceived regarding data security, the attitudes and expectations of all groups were rather positive. Older patients and medical experts with long professional experience tend to express more skepticism.
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Youth experiencing housing instability have higher rates of mental health problems than their housed peers. Few studies have evaluated technological resources for homeless youth to determine how to effectively engage and reach them. ⋯ Automated mental health interventions seem to be an acceptable way to engage homeless youth in mental health support. The participants preferred fully automated features and brief interventions over features requiring interaction with others or more engagement. Future research should explore ways to retain homeless youth in interventions and evaluate the clinical impact of automated technology-based interventions for improving mental health.
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Mental health recovery narratives are first-person lived experience accounts of recovery from mental health problems, which refer to events or actions over a period. They are readily available either individually or in collections of recovery narratives published in books, health service booklets, or on the Web. Collections of recovery narratives have been used in a range of mental health interventions, and organizations or individuals who curate collections can therefore influence how mental health problems are seen and understood. No systematic review has been conducted of research into curatorial decision making. ⋯ Only 1 research article was identified despite extensive searches, and hence this review has revealed a lack of peer-reviewed empirical research regarding the curation of recovery narrative collections. The conceptual framework can be used as a preliminary version of reporting guidelines for use when reporting on health care interventions that make use of narrative collections. It provides a theory base to inform the development of new narrative collections for use in complex mental health interventions. Collections can serve as a mechanism for supporting collective rather than individual discourses around mental health.