Wetterlin Felicia M, Mar Marissa Y, Neilson Erika K, Werker Gregory R, Krausz Michael
Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
J Med Internet Res. 2014 Dec 17;16(12):e293. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3526.
Due to the high prevalence of psychological disorders and the lack of access to care among Canadian youth, the development of accessible services is increasingly important. eMental Health is an expanding field that may help to meet this need through the provision of mental health care using technology.
The primary goals of the study are to explore youth experiences with traditional and online mental health resources, and to investigate youth expectations for mental health websites.
A Web-based survey containing quantitative and qualitative questions was delivered to youth aged 17-24 years. Participants were surveyed to evaluate their use of mental health resources as well as their preferences for various components of a potential mental health website.
A total of 521 surveys were completed. Most participants (61.6%, 321/521) indicated that they had used the Internet to seek information or help for feelings they were experiencing. If they were going through a difficult time, 82.9% (432/521) of participants were either "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to use an information-based website and 76.8% (400/521) reported that they were either "somewhat unlikely" or "very unlikely" to visit social media websites for information or help-seeking purposes during this time. Most (87.7%, 458/521) participants rated their online privacy as very important. Descriptions of interventions and treatments was the most highly rated feature to have in a mental health-related website, with 91.9% (479/521) of participants regarding it as "important" or "very important". When presented a select list of existing Canadian mental health-related websites, most participants had not accessed any of the sites. Of the few who had, the Canadian Mental Health Association website was the most accessed website (5.8%, 30/521). Other mental health-related websites were accessed by only 10.9% of the participants (57/521).
The findings suggest that despite interest in these tools, current eMental Health resources either do not meet the needs of or are not widely accessed by youth with mental health problems. In order to improve access to these resources for Canadian youth, Web-based platforms should provide information about mental health problems, support for these problems (peer and professional), and information about resources (self-help as well as ability to locate nearby resources), while protecting the privacy of the user. These findings will not only assist in the development of new mental health platforms but may also help improve existing ones.
由于加拿大青少年心理障碍的高发病率以及难以获得相关护理，开发可及的服务变得越发重要。电子心理健康是一个不断发展的领域，它可能通过利用技术提供心理健康护理来满足这一需求。
本研究的主要目标是探索青少年使用传统和在线心理健康资源的经历，并调查青少年对心理健康网站的期望。
向17至24岁的青少年发放了一份包含定量和定性问题的网络调查问卷。对参与者进行调查，以评估他们对心理健康资源的使用情况以及他们对潜在心理健康网站各个组成部分的偏好。
共完成了521份调查问卷。大多数参与者（61.6%，321/521）表示他们曾使用互联网来寻求有关自身感受的信息或帮助。如果他们正经历一段困难时期，82.9%（432/521）的参与者“有些可能”或“非常可能”使用基于信息的网站，76.8%（400/521）的参与者表示在此期间他们“有些不太可能”或“非常不太可能”为获取信息或寻求帮助而访问社交媒体网站。大多数（87.7%，458/521）参与者认为他们的在线隐私非常重要。干预措施和治疗方法的描述是心理健康相关网站中评价最高的功能，91.9%（479/521）的参与者认为其“重要”或“非常重要”。当列出一系列现有的加拿大心理健康相关网站时，大多数参与者未曾访问过其中任何一个网站。在少数访问过的参与者中，加拿大心理健康协会网站是访问量最大的网站（5.8%，30/521）。其他心理健康相关网站的访问者仅占参与者的10.9%（57/521）。
研究结果表明，尽管青少年对这些工具感兴趣，但目前的电子心理健康资源要么无法满足有心理健康问题的青少年的需求，要么未被他们广泛使用。为了改善加拿大青少年对这些资源的获取，基于网络的平台应提供有关心理健康问题的信息、针对这些问题的支持（同伴和专业支持）以及有关资源的信息（自助以及查找附近资源的能力），同时保护用户隐私。这些研究结果不仅将有助于开发新的心理健康平台，还可能有助于改进现有的平台。
