A pilot trial of a smartphone application to support the mental health of young apprentices

HeadGear is a smartphone application-based intervention centred on behavioural activation and mindfulness therapy. The main therapeutic component of the HeadGear app takes the form of a 30-day challenge in which users complete one ‘mission’ daily. These ‘missions’ include psychoeducational videos on coping skills/resiliency, mindfulness, and behavioural activation; mindfulness exercises; value-driven activity planning, goal-setting, and review; and coping skill development (problem solving, sleep, grounding, alcohol use, assertiveness, and training in adaptive forms of coping). The first daily challenge will involve the completion of a risk calculator, which will assess and provide participants with personalised feedback regarding their risk for future mental health issues. The risk calculator is developed from the validated HILDA risk algorithm for future distress in working Australian adults [1]. The risk factor items are based on participant self-report. The HILDA risk items include: age, gender, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, active carer, freedom to decide work, satisfaction with hours worked, satisfaction with employment opportunities, three or more times physical activity, alcohol use, episodes of distress in the previous two years, satisfaction with health, satisfaction with the neighbourhood, satisfaction with partner, satisfaction with the way tasks are divided with partner, have someone to confide in, feeling being pushed around, and English as a second language. The HILDA questions and response items were replicated from the original items included in the HILDA survey, apart from age, which is measured here as a continuous measure. Users will receive personalised risk feedback immediately after completing the risk calculator. The personalised risk feedback involves an interactive chart which displays the current risk estimate of developing mental ill-health within the next year, the lowest risk possible, and risk factors for targeting. Other components of the app include a mood monitoring widget, a toolbox of skills (which is built from the challenge as it is completed), and support service helplines, and links to resources for apprentices. Participants will be encouraged to use the app at least once a day for thirty days. The 'challenges' take 5–10 minutes to complete. As this is an unguided app, no administration/instruction will be delivered. Data on adherence and usage will be collected via the app itself. 1. Fernandez A, Salvador-Carulla L, Choi I, Calvo R, Harvey SB, Glozier N. Development and validation of a prediction algorithm for the onset of common mental disorders in a working population. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2017;52(1):47-58