Cargando…

mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?

BACKGROUND: Two phenomena have become increasingly visible over the past decade: the significant global burden of disease arising from mental illness and the rapid acceleration of mobile phone usage in poorer countries. Mental ill-health accounts for a significant proportion of global disability-adj...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Farrington, Conor, Aristidou, Angela, Ruggeri, Kai
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24670011
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-10-17
_version_ 1782311789132775424
author Farrington, Conor
Aristidou, Angela
Ruggeri, Kai
author_facet Farrington, Conor
Aristidou, Angela
Ruggeri, Kai
author_sort Farrington, Conor
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Two phenomena have become increasingly visible over the past decade: the significant global burden of disease arising from mental illness and the rapid acceleration of mobile phone usage in poorer countries. Mental ill-health accounts for a significant proportion of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLDs), especially in poorer countries where a number of factors combine to exacerbate issues of undertreatment. Yet poorer countries have also witnessed significant investments in, and dramatic expansions of, mobile coverage and usage over the past decade. DEBATE: The conjunction of high levels of mental illness and high levels of mobile phone usage in poorer countries highlights the potential for “mH(2)” interventions – i.e. mHealth (mobile technology-based) mental health interventions - to tackle global mental health challenges. However, global mental health movements and initiatives have yet to engage fully with this potential, partly because of scepticism towards technological solutions in general and partly because existing mH(2) projects in mental health have often taken place in a fragmented, narrowly-focused, and small-scale manner. We argue for a deeper and more sustained engagement with mobile phone technology in the global mental health context, and outline the possible shape of an integrated mH(2) platform for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of mental health. SUMMARY: Existing and developing mH(2) technologies represent an underutilised resource in global mental health. If development, evaluation, and implementation challenges are overcome, an integrated mH(2) platform would make significant contributions to mental healthcare in multiple settings and contexts.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3986901
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-39869012014-04-16 mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding? Farrington, Conor Aristidou, Angela Ruggeri, Kai Global Health Debate BACKGROUND: Two phenomena have become increasingly visible over the past decade: the significant global burden of disease arising from mental illness and the rapid acceleration of mobile phone usage in poorer countries. Mental ill-health accounts for a significant proportion of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLDs), especially in poorer countries where a number of factors combine to exacerbate issues of undertreatment. Yet poorer countries have also witnessed significant investments in, and dramatic expansions of, mobile coverage and usage over the past decade. DEBATE: The conjunction of high levels of mental illness and high levels of mobile phone usage in poorer countries highlights the potential for “mH(2)” interventions – i.e. mHealth (mobile technology-based) mental health interventions - to tackle global mental health challenges. However, global mental health movements and initiatives have yet to engage fully with this potential, partly because of scepticism towards technological solutions in general and partly because existing mH(2) projects in mental health have often taken place in a fragmented, narrowly-focused, and small-scale manner. We argue for a deeper and more sustained engagement with mobile phone technology in the global mental health context, and outline the possible shape of an integrated mH(2) platform for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of mental health. SUMMARY: Existing and developing mH(2) technologies represent an underutilised resource in global mental health. If development, evaluation, and implementation challenges are overcome, an integrated mH(2) platform would make significant contributions to mental healthcare in multiple settings and contexts. BioMed Central 2014-03-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3986901/ /pubmed/24670011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-10-17 Text en Copyright © 2014 Farrington et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Debate
Farrington, Conor
Aristidou, Angela
Ruggeri, Kai
mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title_full mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title_fullStr mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title_full_unstemmed mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title_short mHealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mH(2) wedding?
title_sort mhealth and global mental health: still waiting for the mh(2) wedding?
topic Debate
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24670011
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-10-17
work_keys_str_mv AT farringtonconor mhealthandglobalmentalhealthstillwaitingforthemh2wedding
AT aristidouangela mhealthandglobalmentalhealthstillwaitingforthemh2wedding
AT ruggerikai mhealthandglobalmentalhealthstillwaitingforthemh2wedding