Online models of mental health service delivery enable consumers to learn more about their health conditions and to undertake self-help programs to improve their health.1 These models can also facilitate peer-to-peer support. Self-help activity may occur at any stage of recovery and remain an option whether or not the consumer is engaged with professional health care providers.
As Griffiths and colleagues report in this supplement , there is increasing evidence that internet-based interventions providing cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are effective for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders in users. However, only three of the efficacious interventions they identified are freely available as “first-line” community self-help interventions.2 Of these, two are delivered by the e-hub group at the Australian National University. Although other effective automated web interventions for depression exist, most function solely in the context of research trials and do not offer direct services to consumers via the internet. However, current developments within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom3 and in the realm of managed care in the United States4 suggest that the direct provision of online self-help tools to the public may increase, as a strategy to provide early intervention for mental health problems.
Although popular, the evidence for the effectiveness of ISGs is limited, particularly for mental health, although there is some evidence of the efficacy of ISGs for depressive symptoms in women with breast cancer.5
The development of the e-hub web service has been based on reviews of scientific literature, as well as ethical guidelines relevant to the delivery of online mental health services, such as those of the Australian Psychological Society.6 Program structure and practice have been designed to meet the Australian National Standards for Mental Health Services7 and to satisfy other relevant standards, such as the Quality Framework for Telephone Counselling and Internet-based Support Services.8 The ongoing delivery of the service is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
BluePages (http://www.bluepages.anu.edu.au) provides over 100 pages of up-to-date, evidence-based information about the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and experience of depression. The site provides reviews of the available scientific evidence for depression treatments (five medical, seven psychological and 36 lifestyle treatments) and provides contact information for Australian and New Zealand resources. The site is designed to be easy to navigate and includes automated depression and anxiety screening tests. Use of BluePages has been found to significantly reduce depression symptoms in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), with effects maintained after 1 year.9,10
MoodGYM (http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au) is an automated self-help CBT program for depression with five modules and 29 exercises. The program was launched in 2001 and is now in its third version. It has been evaluated in four RCTs and two controlled trials, which have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing depressive symptoms and dysfunctional thoughts in users,11 and is currently being studied in six additional RCTs (in an Australian crisis telephone counselling setting, in a New Zealand community population, with medical interns in the US, with employees in two large organisations in the UK, and with patients attending general practice clinics in four areas of the UK). A clinician’s manual and user’s workbook are available to support adjunctive use of MoodGYM.
e-couch (http://www.ecouch.anu.edu.au) provides evidence-based information and automated self-help skills training for depression, generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder. It includes an information module for each disorder, 12 interactive self-help toolkits and 42 workbook exercises. The toolkits, such as those for depression (Box 1), are based on treatments for which there is scientific evidence of efficacy for the target condition. Further streams, including self-help for panic disorder, relationship and divorce problems, and grief and loss, are scheduled for release in the near future, and e-couch is currently being evaluated in an RCT.
BlueBoard (http://www.blueboard.anu.edu.au) is a moderated ISG for people who have experienced or cared for someone with depressive, bipolar or anxiety disorders. e-hub is currently evaluating an ISG model similar to BlueBoard in an RCT that involves Australian participants from rural and city regions.
The e-hub web services are overseen by:
a clinical psychologist, who assesses and responds to emails and posts with clinical content;
a project officer, who monitors email sent to the programs’ addresses, responds to technical or access requests, and forwards emails to the clinical psychologist or other staff members as per e-hub service protocols;
BlueBoard moderators, who are themselves consumers and who enforce the BlueBoard rules as per the e-hub protocols;
information technology (IT) staff, who maintain and ensure security, back-up and redundancy of web servers, as well as develop and deliver the required software architectures;
academic and clinical research staff, who develop and update content for the programs based on available scientific evidence and provide expert input to the activities of the clinical psychologist as required; and
web development staff, who update and maintain the websites.
Data are collected from users who visit the e-hub web services. Box 2 summarises the demographic characteristics of users who registered on the MoodGYM, e-couch and BlueBoard websites during the 6-month period from 1 November 2008 to 1 May 2009. The number of unique visitors to the BluePages website is also shown (as users of the BluePages website are not required to register, this information is retrieved from server logs). The data for the MoodGYM and BluePages websites show the potential of these programs, once established, to provide services to large numbers of users. The current BlueBoard service was launched in November 2008, and e-couch has been released in stages from 2007. Twenty-five per cent of e-couch registrants and 35% of MoodGYM registrants logged into the program more than once, with most participants for each program (over 90%) commencing or completing only one module. BluePages users visited the site 1.3 times on average, and viewed an average of 8.0 pages per visit. BlueBoard members made an average of 3.4 posts during the 6-month period.
All e-hub programs include the Goldberg Depression and Anxiety Scales,12,13 each comprising nine items coded 0 (no) or 1 (yes) and summed to yield a total score ranging from 0 to 9. Higher scores reflect a greater number of depressive or anxiety symptoms. Users of the e-couch and MoodGYM programs are required to complete the Goldberg scales to progress through their program. Registered BlueBoard users can complete the scales if they wish, and BluePages offers the scales for self-assessment without registration. The mean scores for users of the different services are shown in Box 2 and reflect a high level of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Users’ mean scores are classified in the middle to high, or high to very high ranges when compared with relevant age and sex norms.14 Box 3 shows the distribution of Goldberg depression scale scores for e-hub service users compared with scores from an Australian community sample of 7439 individuals:15 88.1% of the general population participants scored less than 6 on the scale, whereas 68.8% of the e-hub service users scored 6 or more.
The self-help techniques incorporated into e-hub web interventions are also evidence-based. The MoodGYM program successfully delivers techniques derived from CBT, which, in its face-to-face form, is an evidence-based psychological treatment for depression.16,17 e-couch extends this concept by providing both CBT and other evidence-based skills training drawn from interpersonal psychotherapy, relaxation therapy, problem solving and physical activity for depression; relaxation therapy and physical activity therapy for generalised anxiety disorder; and exposure therapy, attention practice, social skills training and relaxation therapy for social anxiety disorder. The delivery of this material through automated systems allows high-fidelity, transparent and consistent delivery, as well as ongoing evaluation.
In addition, we respond to indications that users may be experiencing high levels of distress. For example, users who score high levels on automated assessments receive immediate automated feedback that includes information about crisis assistance. We also have a detailed protocol for detecting and responding to posts on BlueBoard which indicate that a user may be experiencing severe distress or may pose risks to their own safety or that of other people. This protocol has been developed to consider the wellbeing not only of the person posting the material, but also of other people who are reading the posts, since the display of material relating to self-harm and other harm may precipitate symptoms in those reading it.18 Such material is removed from public display, and a message left for the person who wrote it explaining why the post has been moderated and providing contact details of emergency services. Posts that indicate imminent risk of serious harm are triaged according to risk assessment procedures, and the clinical psychologist oversees responses to all posts that relate to severe distress and self- or other harm.
In extreme emergencies, or when legally compelled to do so, the e-hub protocol provides for appropriate disclosure of information in a manner similar to that which occurs in face-to-face interactions (eg, as per the Australian Psychological Society Code of ethics19).
- Kylie Bennett1
- Julia Reynolds2
- Helen Christensen3
- Kathleen M Griffiths4
- Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.
The ongoing development and delivery of the e-hub suite of web services is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Part of the initial funding for the e-couch program was provided by beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Helen Christensen is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Fellowship 525411 and Kathleen Griffiths is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 525413. We also acknowledge the assistance provided by Anthony Bennett in the extraction of data for the preparation of this manuscript and for involvement in the development and delivery of the services.
We are the developers and service providers of the BlueBoard, BluePages, MoodGYM and e-couch web programs.
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- 8. Quality Framework for Telephone Counselling and Internet-based Support Services. September 2008. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, 2009. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/DB24242029D642E6CA2575 BD0001FCA2/$File/quatel.pdf (accessed Jan 2009).
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- 19. Australian Psychological Society. Code of ethics. Melbourne: APS, 2007.
Abstract
Self-help delivered through online websites has been found to be beneficial for people with mental health problems, and consumers find internet support groups helpful.
The Australian National University e-hub group delivers automated web interventions (BluePages, MoodGYM, e-couch) and an online bulletin board (BlueBoard) to the public for mental health self-help.
The evidence-based web interventions require no direct therapist or other human involvement, while the bulletin board is moderated by trained consumers under the supervision of a clinical psychologist. Users may contact the e-hub service by email.
These web services are used by a large number of users, with and without clinical mental disorders, often over a long period of time.
These services provide programs for prevention and early intervention and are particularly suited to people who prefer anonymous services, live in rural and remote areas, or have a preference for self-help methods, as well as for use in school and workplace settings.
A range of best-practice measures have been developed and put in place to ensure high-quality service delivery. Evaluation and quality control are enabled by a database and associated software.