Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Practice Guideline
. 2022 Jun 1;24(6):e34479.
doi: 10.2196/34479.

Strategies for Implementing Occupational eMental Health Interventions: Scoping Review

Renaldo M Bernard  1 , Claudia Toppo  2 , Alberto Raggi  2 , Marleen de Mul  3 , Carlota de Miquel  4   5 , Maria Teresa Pugliese  2 , Christina M van der Feltz-Cornelis  6 , Ana Ortiz-Tallo  5   7 , Luis Salvador-Carulla  8 , Sue Lukersmith  8 , Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen  3 , Dorota Merecz-Kot  9 , Kaja Staszewska  10 , Carla Sabariego  1   11   12
Affiliations
Practice Guideline

Strategies for Implementing Occupational eMental Health Interventions: Scoping Review

Renaldo M Bernard et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The implementation of eMental health interventions, especially in the workplace, is a complex process. Therefore, learning from existing implementation strategies is imperative to ensure improvements in the adoption, development, and scalability of occupational eMental health (OeMH) interventions. However, the implementation strategies used for these interventions are often undocumented or inadequately reported and have not been systematically gathered across implementations in a way that can serve as a much-needed guide for researchers.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to identify implementation strategies relevant to the uptake of OeMH interventions that target employees and detail the associated barriers and facilitation measures.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted. The descriptive synthesis was guided by the RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.

Results: A total of 31 of 32,916 (0.09%) publications reporting the use of the web-, smartphone-, telephone-, and email-based OeMH interventions were included. In all, 98 implementation strategies, 114 barriers, and 131 facilitators were identified. The synthesis of barriers and facilitators produced 19 facilitation measures that provide initial recommendations for improving the implementation of OeMH interventions.

Conclusions: This scoping review represents one of the first steps in a research agenda aimed at improving the implementation of OeMH interventions by systematically selecting, shaping, evaluating, and reporting implementation strategies. There is a dire need for improved reporting of implementation strategies and combining common implementation frameworks with more technology-centric implementation frameworks to fully capture the complexities of eHealth implementation. Future research should investigate a wider range of common implementation outcomes for OeMH interventions that also focus on a wider set of common mental health problems in the workplace. This scoping review's findings can be critically leveraged by discerning decision-makers to improve the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of OeMH interventions.

Keywords: barriers; eMental health; facilitators; implementation; mHealth; mental health; mobile health; mobile phone; occupational health; scoping review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flowchart of the review search, selection, and inclusion process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Depression and other common mental disorders: global health estimates. World Health Organization. 2017. [2022-05-18]. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/WHO-MSD-MER-2017... .
    1. Young KP, Kolcz DL, O'Sullivan DM, Ferrand J, Fried J, Robinson K. Health care workers' mental health and quality of life during COVID-19: results from a mid-pandemic, national survey. Psychiatr Serv. 2021 Feb 01;72(2):122–8. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000424. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cahill J, Cullen P, Anwer S, Wilson S, Gaynor K. Pilot Work Related Stress (WRS), effects on wellbeing and mental health, and coping methods. Int J Aerospace Psychol. 2021 Jan 14;31(2):87–109. doi: 10.1080/24721840.2020.1858714. - DOI
    1. Sampson H, Ellis N. Stepping up: the need for proactive employer investment in safeguarding seafarers’ mental health and wellbeing. Maritime Policy Manag. 2020 Dec 30;48(8):1069–81. doi: 10.1080/03088839.2020.1867918. - DOI
    1. Hamouche S. COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions. Emerald Open Res. 2020 Apr 20;2:15. doi: 10.35241/emeraldopenres.13550.1. - DOI

Publication types