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. 2023 Feb 14:10:e43062.
doi: 10.2196/43062.

A Digital Single-Session Intervention Platform for Youth Mental Health: Cultural Adaptation, Evaluation, and Dissemination

Akash Shroff  1 , Chantelle Roulston  1 , Julia Fassler  1 , Nicole A Dierschke  2 , Jennifer San Pedro Todd  2 , Ámbar Ríos-Herrera  2 , Kristen A Plastino  2 , Jessica Lee Schleider  1
Affiliations

A Digital Single-Session Intervention Platform for Youth Mental Health: Cultural Adaptation, Evaluation, and Dissemination

Akash Shroff et al. JMIR Ment Health. .

Abstract

Background: Despite the proliferation of evidence-based digital mental health programs for young people, their low uptake and inconsistent implementation preclude them from benefiting youths at scale. Identifying effective implementation strategies for evidence-based supports is especially critical in regions where treatment access is lowest owing to mental health provider shortages.

Objective: The goal of this academic-community partnership, funded by the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, was to culturally adapt, disseminate, and gauge the acceptability and utility of an evidence-based digital mental health platform-Project Youth Empowerment and Support (YES)-among English- and Spanish-speaking youths living in south Texas.

Methods: Project YES is an open-access, anonymous platform containing 3 evidence-based, self-guided interventions for youth mental health. Project YES was culturally adapted via focus groups and co-design sessions with San Antonio youths with lived experience of depression and anxiety; translated into Spanish; and disseminated throughout San Antonio, Texas, via community and school partnerships.

Results: During the project period (April 2021 to December 2021), 1801 San Antonio youths began and 894 (49.64%) of them completed a 30-minute, single-session intervention within Project YES (aged 11-17 years; n=718, 39.87% male; n=961, 53.36% female; and n=3, 0.17% intersex; n=1477, 82.01% Hispanic; n=77, 4.28% non-Hispanic White; n=113, 6.27% Black; n=28, 1.55% Asian; and n=93, 5.16% other). This completion rate (49.64%) surpassed those previously observed for Project YES (eg, 34% when disseminated via social media). San Antonio youths rated Project YES as highly acceptable across all metrics, both in English and Spanish. In addition, the youths who completed Project YES-ENGLISH reported significant improvements in hopelessness (Cohen d=0.33; P<001), self-hate (Cohen d=0.27; P<001), and perceived agency (Cohen d=0.25; P<001) from before to after the intervention, and the youths who completed Project YES-SPANISH reported significant improvements in self-hate (Cohen d=0.37; P=.049) from before to after the intervention.

Conclusions: The results indicate that Project YES-an open-access, free, and anonymous web-based single-session intervention platform-is an acceptable, accessible, and applicable mental health support for English- and Spanish-speaking San Antonio youths.

Keywords: adolescents; cultural adaptation; mobile phone; single-session intervention; web-based intervention.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: JLS serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Walden Wise and the Clinical Advisory Board for Koko, is a Cofounder and Codirector of Single Session Support Solutions Inc, and receives book royalties from New Harbinger, Oxford University Press, and Little Brown Book Group.

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