PDF Basket
Teenagers are widely derided for spending their time glued to their smartphones. But these same devices could provide the answer to a more alarming trend among young people: increasing rates of mental health disorders, especially anxiety and depression, which are now estimated to affect as many as one in five 16- to 20-year-olds.
The EU-funded ECOWEB project is developing a novel smartphone app aimed at preventing the onset of mental health problems, giving young people always-accessible self-help tools to support them through adverse life events, strengthen their emotional resilience and promote mental wellbeing.
The project’s innovative approach is set to have a major impact on the current and future mental health of young people in Europe, leading to extensive benefits for society, education systems and public healthcare services.
‘There is growing global concern about the increasing incidence and ever earlier onset of mental disorders that severely affect the life chances of young people at a key formative period, impacting their education, employment, social development and future health,’ says ECOWEB project coordinator Ed Watkins, professor of experimental and applied clinical psychology at the University of Exeter in the UK.
‘Given the scale of the problem, traditional treatment approaches are not sufficient to address the global burden of anxiety and depression – moreover, because poor mental health can be recurring, it is better to prevent its initial onset rather than treat it once it is started.’
Personalised, digital approach
The self-help ECOWEB app is being designed with that challenge in mind. Intended to be made available for free or at low cost to anyone who might need it, it will be accessible anytime, anywhere and, crucially, provide personalised care tailored to meet individual needs.
Due to be tested with thousands of young volunteers across several European countries, the app is being built around an established psychological model known as Emotional Competence. Studies have shown that the approach can reduce rates of depression and anxiety in target populations by as much as 50 % by helping people understand and manage their emotions.
Following the Emotional Competence Process model, which proposes that everyone has a range of different emotion-related competences that can be strengthened through training exercises, the app will gauge how users appraise events and how they manage their resulting emotions. Do they dwell on a negative incident? Stress about an upcoming exam? Do they worry too much? How do they interpret events like an argument with a friend or a bad school grade, and respond to the emotions they feel as a result?
App with hands-on help
The app will then provide help where the person most needs it. For example, if the analysis suggests the user worries a lot, he or she will be provided with self-help exercises and strategies to reduce anxiety. If they feel an event is out of their control, leading to despondency and depression, they will learn ways to see that they do have some say over the situation.
The app will also help users understand not only their own emotions, but also those of others, from their tone of voice and facial expressions – an ability that has been shown to lead to better relationships and school and workplace performance.
‘This is a breakthrough in mental health research. It has long been proposed that more people might do well if therapy is matched to their needs but ECOWEB is one of the first times this is being tested on a large scale,’ Watkins says.
‘If our trials of the digital self-help app prove successful, it will validate a digital mental healthcare approach that is highly scalable across the general population and would reduce the burden on public healthcare services, educational systems and social services while providing incalculable benefits to young people at risk.’