It’s Time to Realize the Promise of the Digital Mental Health Transformation: Application to Population Mental Health (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED The past 25 years has seen the explosion of digital healthcare – from 1s and 0s initially serving mostly researchers to accomplish their work, to the creation of smartphones, mHealth and more recently Artificial Intelligence. The revolution for digital mental health is no longer in its infancy, as new tools are created to address mental health, sometimes even undergoing evaluation for adoption and efficacy. In fact, a recent study reporting on National Health Interview Survey data (annually conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics) indicate that in 2017 21% of adults reporting serious psychological distress used a digital health tool – up from 10% in 2013. Given widespread access to digital tools and the potential of digital mental health, it is time for a new paradigm of care to address the mental health crisis in the United States. Reactive care, consisting largely of medication and counseling provided to those already experiencing severe or debilitating symptoms of mental anguish, is not adequate to address the needs of 22.8% of the U.S. population (>55 million people) experiencing symptoms of a mental illness, and the larger number of people with pre-clinical mental health concerns. A population mental-health approach is needed that includes early identification, intervention, and prevention, in addition to reactive care.