Program in Digital Mental Health
An interprofessional program engaging experts across KU Medical Center campuses aims to expand access to effective digital mental health care
The new Program in Digital Mental Health is a collaborative effort between the KU Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth and the KU School of Medicine-Wichita Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The program advances our research mission and serves as a hub for related efforts of faculty and trainees across KU Medical Center.
The program will develop new digital tools and conduct research on the effectiveness and implementation approaches for new and existing digital mental health assessments and interventions. Implementation scientists from the KU School of Medicine Department of Population Health and faculty affiliated with the Kansas Center for Rural Health will partner with the program and make the identification of sustainable implementation approaches a high priority.
The Need
Mental illness is a major health challenge affecting 1 in 5 adults and 1 in 6 children in the US.1,2 Of those affected by mental illness, the majority have not received treatment in the prior year.3 In rural and frontier areas, which include 85 of the 105 counties in Kansas, access is even more difficult.4 And in many rural settings, little or no mental health services even exist. As might be expected, a lack of treatment of mental disorders early in disease progression leads to poorer health, social, and academic outcomes.5,6,7
How We Are Responding
Given the challenges in access to effective mental health assessment and care, our program seeks to lesson this gap with a Digital Mental Health Care Initiative that will:
- Study the effectiveness and safety of leading digital mental health assessments and interventions in Kansas with significant implication for the nation’s mental health needs;
- Develop new digital mental health tools for unmet needs (e.g., adolescent depression); and
- Develop methods for the scalable delivery (implementation) of safe and effective digital mental health tools for rural and urban Kansas settings, with relevance for these settings across the country.
Why Computer-Based Mental Health Assessments and Treatments?
Evidence shows that digital mental health care can be easily accessible, private, affordable and as effective as therapist care for most people.
Multiple aspects of digital mental health care — including its easy accessibility — support our goal of bringing care to those who need it. We know that effective computer-based therapies are available for depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, eating disorders, insomnia, obsessive compulsive disorder and other psychiatric illnesses. But in many cases approaches that support access to these tools have not undergone rigorous evaluations , limiting their widespread availability.
Our Research Team
Given the critical challenge in access to effective mental health assessment and treatment, a new research team was recruited to KU School of Medicine-Wichita to facilitate the development of our cross-campus Program in Digital Mental Health.
1Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2016.
2Whitney DG, Peterson MD. US national and state-level prevalence of mental health disorders and disparities of mental health care use in children. JAMA Pediatr. 2019;173(4):389–391.
3Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2021). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP21-07-01-003, NSDUH Series H-56). Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality,
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/.
42023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
5Fergusson, D. M. and L. J. Woodward (2002). Mental health, educational, and social role outcomes of adolescents with depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59(3): 225-231.
6Wallin AS, Koupil I, Gustafsson J-E, Zammit S, Allebeck P and F. D (2019). "Academic performance, externalizing disorders and depression: 26,000 adolescents followed into adulthood." Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 54: 977-986.
7Agnafors, S., M. Barmark and G. Sydsjo (2021). "Mental health and academic performance: a study on selection and causation effects from childhood to early adulthood." Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 56(5): 857-866.
8Schure MB, Lindow JC, Greist JH, Nakonezny PA, Bailey SJ, Bryan B, and MJ Byerly. A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Fully Automated Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy Intervention in a Community Population of Adults with Depression Symptoms. J Med Internet Res, 2019 Nov 18;21(11):e14754.