In recent years, E-mental health has become increasingly known as a container concept. Research that explores the extent to which this technology can be used and provides returns for clinical practice is also gradually increasing, but is still relatively limited at the moment. However, the demand for more commitment to translating this technology into practical applications is not only strong among professionals from a social commitment. Both from policy initiatives such as mHealth Belgium and from social profit experiences, there is an explicit call for a stronger focus on the dissemination and valorisation of well-founded digital care.

Objective

From 2019 to 2021, the Expertise unit Psychology, Technology & Society therefore tries to valorise existing applications, both to avoid the time-consuming and costly development of new applications, but also to further explore and substantiate the limited number of ongoing good practices, by 1) providing policy and organisations with insights into how to disseminate online tools (as optimally as possible) to the general population, 2) providing professionals and organisations with concrete tools on the use of (commercial) wearables in practice, and 3) providing professionals with the necessary substantiation on the substantiated use of AR in the treatment of animal phobia.

Research questions

The following 4 research questions are proposed for this purpose:

1. App uptake 
How can eMovit, an accessible smartphone application for stimulating well-being, best be distributed among the general population?

2. Wearables
What are concrete barriers to using wearables in practice?

3. Augmented reality
To what extent can AR be used to treat animal phobias?

4. Online consultations
How can counsellors in MHC be optimally supported in both the short and long term with online consultations?
This was added as an additional research question following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Output

• First output based on the COVID-survey are FAQ can be found on the website of the Project Group on eHealth of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA).