Are digital mental wellbeing advice and forums enough?

Are digital mental wellbeing advice and forums enough?

The pandemic crisis saw an 89% increase in adults making use of the Kooth digital mental health platform, often used in referrals by the NHS.

In its What is the State of the Nation’s Mental Health report, Kooth has set out the findings from 192,000 anonymised users of the service between April 2020 and March 2021.

Making use of the standard GAD7 questionnaire, 41% said they “felt nervous or anxious every day”, up 19% on 2019 figures. 38% said they “could not stop or control worrying nearly every day”, a 25% increase.

Evidence of crisis

The serious impact of the series of lockdowns is made clear by the data. Problems with sleeping was found to be consistently more common: for example, in November 2020, sleep difficulties were 106% more prevalent than in 2019. Spikes in the number of adults experiencing suicidal thoughts were seen in November and December 2020; and by February 2021, 27% of all adults presenting issues admitted to having suicidal thoughts. Self-harm was also worse, peaking in February and March 2021

“In order to address the mental health and wellbeing needs of the nation, choice and diversity in how people access mental health support must be embraced,” says the report. “There is no longer a one size fits all approach to care. It is clear that there must be a focus on providing support outside of the clinic, or the therapy room – meeting the needs of the nation by providing support when and where it is needed. Digital support should be embedded into wider support structures to provide a safety net for people.”

People need people

“Immediate access to support on mental health is vital – because of the importance of early intervention, but also because that’s the world we live in, the expectation of instant, digital access to services,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“For the NHS, struggling to deal with a vast backlog of patient cases, flagging people towards a library of professional, moderated content and the opportunity to interact with other content users is a sensible option. As research has shown, people in general have been reluctant to bother their GP with mental health problems.

“All our experience shows, however, that employees trying to cope with mounting concerns about their state of mind need the reassurance of a human relationship. A sense of isolation, of being stuck with only digital, artificial relationships, not being listened to, is so often part of the problem.

“That’s why the offerings that employers put in place via an EAP, their commitment to offering individual attention, empathy and a human voice is so valuable and valued.”

Digital mental wellbeing Eugene Farrell