User Insights into Digital Mental Health Tools

This report follows the second instalment of Future Care Capital’s Care Tech Landscape Review series, the Mental Health Tech Landscape Review. The report explored trends in the mental health technology market in England and made recommendations for the development, adoption and spread of useful technologies. This work focused on care provision rather than diagnostic or condition-specific intervention. While conducting the research, it became clear that poor demand signalling structures currently exist, and the consumer perspective is not always sufficiently considered in technology development, which inspired this user research and other FCC initiatives.

Here we are providing a snapshot of current attitudes, behaviours relating to, and perceptions of mental health technology in England. We explore what tools people use, how they use them, and why. We also identify the user perceived advantages and disadvantages of such tools, and their optimal features according to users. We consider the integration of digital tools with existing mental health services, particularly in light of COVID-19 trends in mental health. Finally, the report recommends measures that would be beneficial for the development and adoption of mental health tools, and to address some of the challenges in integrating digital and face-to-face healthcare delivery. The report seeks to inform policymakers, innovators, technology developers, clinical researchers and the health and care workforce by advancing the critical discourse around the need, role, and optimal features of digital mental health tools.

This report is based on the primary research undertaken with ZPB, looking into trends around the use of mental health tools and user perceptions. The data is from a survey of 515 individuals and a two-day workshop with 15 participants conducted in June 2022. Only individuals who had used or are currently using mental health tools were involved in our research, so the answers are not fully representative of the population. Additional research in this area, to understand the perception of technology amongst those who have never used it, may also be useful.