Mental Health Awareness Week: Can technology be a source for good?
In June 2020, The GovLab partnered with UNICEF’s Health and HIV team in the Division of Data, Analysis, Planning & Monitoring and the Data for Children Collaborative to undertake a consultation process with over 70 experts from around the world, including youth advocates, to examine and prioritize aspects of adolescent mental health based on a comprehensive topic mapping. The topic mapping covered aspects related to adolescent mental health on three levels: systems, community, and individual and family. The results from the two virtual workshops conducted as part of the consultation process found that prevention and promotion of adolescent mental health emerged as the top priority for those in attendance, coupled with concern over adolescent use of technology.
This project has supported UNICEF in its efforts to determine how digital platforms and their applications can positively affect adolescent mental health. A related focus is on how such platforms can promote positive social connections and relationships for adolescents. In this sense, this research provides a fresh angle on a field that typically is focused on adverse impacts of online content.
Below you can access some of the initial outputs of our work!
REPORT:
Engaging a multidisciplinary team, Phase 1 of this project focused on building an understanding of the existing landscape and systems that would need to be utilised in order to build a project that fits the operational needs of UNICEF’s measurement priorities and informing programs through a data science approach.
The project explored the following questions: what evidence is available on the topic of technology and adolescent mental health; what are the needs that UNICEF sees in the field; and what technologies are already available to improve adolescent mental health outcomes.
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS:
A key part of this approach involved holding focus group discussions with young people in Jamaica to get a better understanding of how children and young people are using online apps and technologies, and whether they are a useful and plausible option to explore the provision of mental health services.
The objective of the focus group discussions was to evaluate the ways that adolescents and young people interact with technology. We hoped to gain a better understanding of the elements of technology and social media which draw adolescents and young people in, and to find out what keeps them engaged in using these technologies for mental wellbeing. We also wanted to find out the types of technologies they use to suit various needs.
We are now in the process of building out the second phase of this project to continue working with UNICEF to support their important work on improving adolescent mental health service provision across the globe.
Watch this space!