None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
University students and young people are already a known high risk group for experiencing poor mental health and wellbeing. This at-risk group also demonstrates low uptake for early help seeking where the largest barrier often experienced by this group to seek help early is lack of awareness and understanding about the process and often associated bias or stigma. It is critically important to develop the resources and tools to support students in feeling like they understand mental health, can recognise early trends in mood and behaviours that might be early symptoms of poor mental health, and feel supported and empowered to reach out for help when they need it. The Monash THRIVE App is being developed to help students track their own feelings and set, and achieve, their own wellbeing goals through a tailor made resource that is private and secure on their own device. Through using the Monash THRIVE App students will learn more about mental health, and themselves and feel more supported to seek help early when they are struggling. This trial has been designed to measure both efficacy in terms of perceived willingness to seek help and overall wellbeing as well as the user feedback on the design, functionality, and usability of the Monash THRIVE App in a true co-design and co-development process with users. Note that no specific mental health condition or diagnosis is explored in this trial as all participants are pre-clinical. The core outcome of this trial is to explore improved wellbeing and App feedback amongst a healthy population of University students. It is hypothesised that through a 12-week period of using the THRIVE App to actively monitor emotions and engage in feedback from the app students will show an improvement in mental health awareness and psychological literacy outcomes, as well as a potential improvement in overall wellbeing and intention to seek help.
Interventions
Participants will be using a preventative mental health App known as the THRIVE App over a period of 12 weeks. Participants can use the App as frequently as they wish however it is recommended to interact with the App for at least 5 minutes per day. When using the App participants will be checking in their mood using a gamified 'wheel of feels' that includes top order emotion, additional descriptors of emotion, additional factors causing or related to that emotion, and the option to include a di
Participants will be using a preventative mental health App known as the THRIVE App over a period of 12 weeks. Participants can use the App as frequently as they wish however it is recommended to interact with the App for at least 5 minutes per day. When using the App participants will be checking in their mood using a gamified 'wheel of feels' that includes top order emotion, additional descriptors of emotion, additional factors causing or related to that emotion, and the option to include a diary entry. From there participants are recommended a mental health related written resource that has been co-designed with University students, these resources may include "understanding anger" or "how to improve procrastination". This, the second iteration of the App, also includes some basic breathing tasks based on box breathing techniques, mindfulness recordings provided by the University, and analytic 'dashboard' views of how the participants have checked in over time. The App also includes easy to access information on how to seek help and access both University, state, and privately provided mental health support. To measure usage of the App being tested we ask participants in 2 week intervals to report the amount of time they used the App each day, this was measured in minutes where '0' minutes was an option for those who had stopped using the App or were not using it daily.
Sponsors
Monash University
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Must be a student currently studying at the chosen Australian University (Monash University) Must be enrolled at an Australian campus Must be located in Australia (for the purposes of access to the App) Must have a smartphone device capable of hosting the App (e.g. iPhones capable of installing iOS 16)
Exclusion criteria
None.
Outcome results
None listed