Monique Jones

Mental illness substantially contributes to the global burden of disease, with anxiety high in prevalence. The increase of mobile technology, mental health apps have potential to lessen this burden. However, within apps, the use of evidence-based interventions, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are limited. Regardless, many commercially available mental health apps are highly rated by users, highlighting the need to understand what makes mental health apps valuable to the user. The contribution of this study was to uncover apps that support generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and worry with a CBT basis, explore app functionality, and user experience. Firstly, by identifying apps that support GAD and worry and included CBT. Secondly, by identifying and analysing therapeutic and engagement functions within the apps, and finally, by thematically analysing user reviews. Six apps were identified to support GAD and worry that purported to be CBT-based. However, CBT therapeutic features and engagement features were minimally present in the apps. User reviews yielded 112 comments about the apps and key themes were identified about the app users’ global experiences with the app, and about the combination of technological (e.g., useability, reliability) and therapeutic experiences (e.g., learning and using skills). Future development of quality apps to support GAD and worry must consider the empirical standing of both therapeutic and technology aspects, to provide efficacious and engaging interventions.

Objective: The rising prevalence of mental health symptoms brought on by the COVID19 pandemic led to the inception and development of EMERging Anxiety, Loneliness, Depression (EMERALD) well-being programme. EMERALD was designed to improve psychological well-being of the general population who had not previously sought mental health support. The programme incorporated a focus on lifestyle medicine and was underpinned by solution focused health coaching. The aim of the paper is to describe the programme according to the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist to provide detailed reporting of the intervention's elements. Methods: The TIDieR checklist was utilised to comprehensively describe the programme, including theoretical underpinnings, materials, procedures, providers, mode of delivery and tailoring of the programme. The Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy v2 was used to identify the specific behaviour change techniques used within the solution focused health coaching framework. Results: The programme was developed to align with the latest evidence-based literature in lifestyle medicine and solution focused coaching. The programme also offered allied health expertise, online educational modules and was tailored to the participants. The programme was delivered online through a telehealth platform. Conclusion: The TIDieR checklist has enabled the provision of a detailed structure of the EMERALD program intervention. The behaviour change taxonomy has facilitated the outlining of specific techniques used in health coaching sessions. Both structures have operationalised the detail of the intervention for the purposes of replication and informing the literature.