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e-hub: an online self-help mental health service in the community

Kylie Bennett, Julia Reynolds, Helen Christensen and Kathleen M Griffiths
Med J Aust 2010; 192 (11): S48. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03694.x
Published online: 7 June 2010

Online models of mental health service delivery enable consumers to learn more about their health conditions and to undertake self-help programs to improve their health.1 These models can also facilitate peer-to-peer support. Self-help activity may occur at any stage of recovery and remain an option whether or not the consumer is engaged with professional health care providers.

There are two main forms of online self-help service. The first involves the delivery of web interventions providing information, skills training, and guidance to bring symptom relief or improved coping, or to prevent the occurrence, exacerbation or recurrence of an illness. The second involves mutual support delivered through internet support groups (ISGs).

As Griffiths and colleagues report in this supplement , there is increasing evidence that internet-based interventions providing cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are effective for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders in users. However, only three of the efficacious interventions they identified are freely available as “first-line” community self-help interventions.2 Of these, two are delivered by the e-hub group at the Australian National University. Although other effective automated web interventions for depression exist, most function solely in the context of research trials and do not offer direct services to consumers via the internet. However, current developments within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom3 and in the realm of managed care in the United States4 suggest that the direct provision of online self-help tools to the public may increase, as a strategy to provide early intervention for mental health problems.

Although popular, the evidence for the effectiveness of ISGs is limited, particularly for mental health, although there is some evidence of the efficacy of ISGs for depressive symptoms in women with breast cancer.5

e-hub is a service model that provides automated self-help interventions and an ISG directly to the public. Here, we outline the nature of the e-hub service, its users, and the best-practice measures used to ensure good outcomes.

The e-hub web service
Service programs

The e-hub web service currently comprises four online programs, which are available free of charge to public users.

BluePages (http://www.bluepages.anu.edu.au) provides over 100 pages of up-to-date, evidence-based information about the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and experience of depression. The site provides reviews of the available scientific evidence for depression treatments (five medical, seven psychological and 36 lifestyle treatments) and provides contact information for Australian and New Zealand resources. The site is designed to be easy to navigate and includes automated depression and anxiety screening tests. Use of BluePages has been found to significantly reduce depression symptoms in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), with effects maintained after 1 year.9,10

MoodGYM (http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au) is an automated self-help CBT program for depression with five modules and 29 exercises. The program was launched in 2001 and is now in its third version. It has been evaluated in four RCTs and two controlled trials, which have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing depressive symptoms and dysfunctional thoughts in users,11 and is currently being studied in six additional RCTs (in an Australian crisis telephone counselling setting, in a New Zealand community population, with medical interns in the US, with employees in two large organisations in the UK, and with patients attending general practice clinics in four areas of the UK). A clinician’s manual and user’s workbook are available to support adjunctive use of MoodGYM.

e-couch (http://www.ecouch.anu.edu.au) provides evidence-based information and automated self-help skills training for depression, generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder. It includes an information module for each disorder, 12 interactive self-help toolkits and 42 workbook exercises. The toolkits, such as those for depression (Box 1), are based on treatments for which there is scientific evidence of efficacy for the target condition. Further streams, including self-help for panic disorder, relationship and divorce problems, and grief and loss, are scheduled for release in the near future, and e-couch is currently being evaluated in an RCT.

BlueBoard (http://www.blueboard.anu.edu.au) is a moderated ISG for people who have experienced or cared for someone with depressive, bipolar or anxiety disorders. e-hub is currently evaluating an ISG model similar to BlueBoard in an RCT that involves Australian participants from rural and city regions.

To access the e-couch and MoodGYM programs, users must agree to the programs’ terms of use and privacy conditions, and register on the site with a pseudonym and accompanying password. The information provided on BluePages is available without registration. The posts on BlueBoard can be read without registering, but to post messages and use other functions, users must agree to the BlueBoard rules and join with an anonymous username. The programs do not currently involve email reminders (although this opt-in functionality will soon be introduced), and users can access the programs as frequently and for as long as they choose.

Users of the service

Data are collected from users who visit the e-hub web services. Box 2 summarises the demographic characteristics of users who registered on the MoodGYM, e-couch and BlueBoard websites during the 6-month period from 1 November 2008 to 1 May 2009. The number of unique visitors to the BluePages website is also shown (as users of the BluePages website are not required to register, this information is retrieved from server logs). The data for the MoodGYM and BluePages websites show the potential of these programs, once established, to provide services to large numbers of users. The current BlueBoard service was launched in November 2008, and e-couch has been released in stages from 2007. Twenty-five per cent of e-couch registrants and 35% of MoodGYM registrants logged into the program more than once, with most participants for each program (over 90%) commencing or completing only one module. BluePages users visited the site 1.3 times on average, and viewed an average of 8.0 pages per visit. BlueBoard members made an average of 3.4 posts during the 6-month period.

All e-hub programs include the Goldberg Depression and Anxiety Scales,12,13 each comprising nine items coded 0 (no) or 1 (yes) and summed to yield a total score ranging from 0 to 9. Higher scores reflect a greater number of depressive or anxiety symptoms. Users of the e-couch and MoodGYM programs are required to complete the Goldberg scales to progress through their program. Registered BlueBoard users can complete the scales if they wish, and BluePages offers the scales for self-assessment without registration. The mean scores for users of the different services are shown in Box 2 and reflect a high level of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Users’ mean scores are classified in the middle to high, or high to very high ranges when compared with relevant age and sex norms.14 Box 3 shows the distribution of Goldberg depression scale scores for e-hub service users compared with scores from an Australian community sample of 7439 individuals:15 88.1% of the general population participants scored less than 6 on the scale, whereas 68.8% of the e-hub service users scored 6 or more.

Best-practice measures
Quality of information in the web interventions

The mental health literacy information included in the e-hub web intervention programs (BluePages and the mental health literacy components of the e-couch streams) is derived from reviews of published evidence and includes information about symptoms, treatment and modifiable risk factors for different disorders. Ratings of the research evidence are provided and explained in lay terms. All information included in the web interventions is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure currency with available published research.

The self-help techniques incorporated into e-hub web interventions are also evidence-based. The MoodGYM program successfully delivers techniques derived from CBT, which, in its face-to-face form, is an evidence-based psychological treatment for depression.16,17 e-couch extends this concept by providing both CBT and other evidence-based skills training drawn from interpersonal psychotherapy, relaxation therapy, problem solving and physical activity for depression; relaxation therapy and physical activity therapy for generalised anxiety disorder; and exposure therapy, attention practice, social skills training and relaxation therapy for social anxiety disorder. The delivery of this material through automated systems allows high-fidelity, transparent and consistent delivery, as well as ongoing evaluation.

Consumers also receive feedback about their responses to symptom self-report measures. This feedback is based on community normative information for specific age and sex groups, collected from longitudinal data.

Protocol for responding to users and duty of care

e-hub staff do not form traditional treatment relationships with users, and a service protocol for responding to users has been implemented. Staff do not provide individual virtual or face-to-face psychological treatment, but the service does assist consumers to identify relevant treatment providers and resources as required. This is primarily achieved through the provision of information about emergency resources and listings on the websites. As part of informed consent procedures, users are also informed of the limits of the services and the importance of seeking professional help.

In addition, we respond to indications that users may be experiencing high levels of distress. For example, users who score high levels on automated assessments receive immediate automated feedback that includes information about crisis assistance. We also have a detailed protocol for detecting and responding to posts on BlueBoard which indicate that a user may be experiencing severe distress or may pose risks to their own safety or that of other people. This protocol has been developed to consider the wellbeing not only of the person posting the material, but also of other people who are reading the posts, since the display of material relating to self-harm and other harm may precipitate symptoms in those reading it.18 Such material is removed from public display, and a message left for the person who wrote it explaining why the post has been moderated and providing contact details of emergency services. Posts that indicate imminent risk of serious harm are triaged according to risk assessment procedures, and the clinical psychologist oversees responses to all posts that relate to severe distress and self- or other harm.

The bulletin board service emphasises peer-to-peer support rather than expert involvement, and moderators do not actively participate in the board except as set out by protocols designed to maintain the rules and safety of the board.

Although we clearly state that the e-hub service cannot provide direct personal treatment, we do respond to people who contact us through the email addresses provided on each website and refer them to appropriate resources. All incoming emails are read by the project officer, and enquiries of a clinical nature are referred to the clinical psychologist. Standards have been set to monitor and evaluate our responses to these users (eg, in terms of timeliness), forming part of our ongoing service audit. In addition, all e-hub web staff are trained in how to respond to telephone calls from distressed individuals who may be at risk of self-harm.

Conclusion

The Australian National University e-hub group delivers mental health services directly to a high volume of users in the community. We see the e-hub web service as providing first-line assistance to the public for early intervention and prevention of mental health problems, as well as providing adjunctive interventions to people who are engaged in face-to-face professional treatment. Anecdotal feedback from e-hub site users and referrers suggests that these services may be particularly useful in supporting relapse-prevention activities for people who have completed face-to-face treatment. The e-hub web service provides accessible, evidence-based inventions that are particularly suited to people who prefer anonymous services, for use in school or workplace settings, and for use in rural and remote communities.

2 Registrants on MoodGYM, e-couch and BlueBoard, and unique visitors to BluePages, 1 November 2008 – 1 May 2009

MoodGYM

e-couch

BlueBoard

BluePages


Total registrants/unique visitors

46 882

4687

166

59 090

Sex

Male

14 865 (31.7%)

1441 (30.7%)

50 (30.1%)

not collected

Female

32 017 (68.3%)

3246 (69.3%)

107 (64.5%)

not collected

Not specified

0

0

9 (5.4%)

Age

< 20 years

4 823 (10.3%)

345 (7.4%)

5 (3.0%)

not collected

20–34 years

19 727 (42.1%)

1837 (39.2%)

59 (35.5%)

not collected

35–49 years

14 976 (31.9%)

1594 (34.0%)

62 (37.3%)

not collected

≥ 50 years

7 356 (15.7%)

911 (19.4%)

31 (18.7%)

not collected

Not specified

0

0

9 (5.4%)

Location

Rural or remote

11 534 (24.6%)

986 (21.0%)

36 (21.7%)

not collected

Capital or other city

35 348 (75.4%)

3701 (79.0%)

120 (72.3%)

not collected

Not specified

0

0

10 (6.0%)

Country (top 3)

Australia

11 860 (25.3%)

1587 (33.9%)

115 (69.3%)

372 004 viewed pages (56.1%)

United Kingdom

20 873 (44.5%)

1357 (29.0%)

8 (4.8%)

7 464 viewed pages (1.1%)

United States

7 566 (16.1%)

806 (17.2%)

14 (8.4%)

220 843 viewed pages (33.3%)

Initial Goldberg scale score*

Depression, mean ± SD (n)

5.95 ± 2.15 (41 695)

6.08 ± 2.27 (4270)

6.72 ± 1.78 (131)

6.28 ± 1.97 (17 230)

Anxiety, mean ± SD (n)

6.23 ± 2.13 (41 100)

5.80 ± 2.23 (4270)

6.88 ± 1.85 (129)

6.69 ± 2.00 (8952)


* On a scale ranging from 0 to 9, where higher scores reflect a greater number of depressive or anxiety symptoms.

  • Kylie Bennett1
  • Julia Reynolds2
  • Helen Christensen3
  • Kathleen M Griffiths4

  • Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.


Correspondence: kylie.bennett@anu.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

The ongoing development and delivery of the e-hub suite of web services is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Part of the initial funding for the e-couch program was provided by beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Helen Christensen is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Fellowship 525411 and Kathleen Griffiths is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 525413. We also acknowledge the assistance provided by Anthony Bennett in the extraction of data for the preparation of this manuscript and for involvement in the development and delivery of the services.

Competing interests:

We are the developers and service providers of the BlueBoard, BluePages, MoodGYM and e-couch web programs.

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