A Trial of Self-Guided Internet-Delivered Education for Adults of an Arabic speaking background With Symptoms of Anxiety or Depression

Participants will be assigned to one group: 1) a culturally-adapted treatment group. All participants will have at least mild symptoms of anxiety and/or depression (i.e. have a score or greater than 4 on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires). All participants will complete 5 lessons of Internet based treatment about management of symptoms of anxiety and depression. One lesson will be completed every 7 to 10 days. Each lesson will take about 15 minutes to complete. Participants will also have access to summaries of each lesson, and will read anonymous stories about other people with anxiety and depression, taking a further 20 minutes per summary. Online monitoring will occur to monitor lessons completed and treatment adherence. When each participant clicks through all the slides of each lesson the computer will log the time spent on the lesson and the time/date when the lesson was completed. All Participants will have access to the culturally-adapted Wellbeing intervention Course that involves the same overall structure as the non-adapted version. However the adaptation will involve the following: (a) using Arabic names; (b) presenting main themes that may be relevant to the Arabic speaking community in the case studies and stories (c) use of key words written in English and Arabic throughout the Course; (d) inclusion of content that reflects that some find their relationship with God is important for wellbeing; and (e) finally the inclusion of an additional optional resource (i.e., Religion/Spiirtuality and Wellbeing) that includes culturally and religious accepted practices. In all other respects the Courses are identical. All participants will also receive automatic email reminders. The duration of the reminder emails expected to be 2-3 minutes per week. The duration of the program is 8 weeks, and participants will be contacted at 3 months and 12 months post program and asked to complete follow-up questionnaires. Outcome questionnaires will be administered at application, pre-treatment, post-treatment, 3-months and 12-months follow-up. These will take about 20-30 minutes to complete. The treatment materials are based on previous internet-based programs, which apply cognitive behavioural techniques.