Brief Online Help-seeking Barrier Reduction Intervention

NCT03633825 | Completed Results

• 1 other identifier: IRB17-1303
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 39,450
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Objective: Mental illness is a leading cause of disease burden; however, many barriers prevent people from seeking mental health services. Technological innovations may improve the ability to reach under-served populations by overcoming many existing barriers. The investigators evaluated a brief, automated risk assessment and intervention platform designed to increase the use of crisis resources provided to individuals who were online and in crisis. Hypothesis: The investigators hypothesized that individuals assigned to the intervention condition would report using crisis resources at higher rates than individuals in the control condition. Method: Participants, users of the digital mental health app Koko, were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions upon accessing the app and were included in the study after their posts were identified by machine learning classifiers as signaling a current mental health crisis. Participants in the treatment condition received a brief Barrier Reduction Intervention (BRI) designed to increase the use of crisis service referrals provided on the app. Participants were followed-up several hours later to assess the use of crisis services.

Conditions

Crisis Intervention; Suicide and Depression

Keywords

suicide; mental health crisis; crisis referrals; help-seeking; risk assessment; treatment barrier

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Number of Participants Reporting Use of Crisis-referrals

  The number participants indicating at follow-up that they used the crisis resources provided to them (e.g., called the suicide crisis hotline)

  5 hours post intervention

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Number of Participants in the Treatment Versus Control Conditions Reporting Their Experience Using Koko Was "Good"

  5 hours post intervention

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Brief help-seeking barrier reduction intervention

Interventions

Brief help-seeking barrier reduction intervention BEHAVIORAL

The BRI was designed to overcome common concerns and misconceptions (i.e., barriers) related to using crisis services. It works by first asking the user about what potential barriers may keep them from using the crisis service referrals, and then, based on the user's response, by providing information intended to help the user overcome the potential barrier(s) they selected. By exploring the menu of barriers, users could read brief messages designed to dispel common misconceptions or concerns related to each barrier. For example, a common concern among Koko users was that calls to lifelines invariably result in visits by the police or other emergency services. Users who feared this possibility could tap on the associated button and learn that active rescues such as these are extremely rare, and occur in less than one percent of all cases. Whenever possible, we used language throughout the intervention to help validate the experiences of the users.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants identified as experiencing a mental health crisis by a hybrid human-machine computation system evaluating semantic content of posts made on digital platforms.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants who were not identified as experiencing a mental health crisis.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Harvard University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Jaroszewski AC, Morris RR, Nock MK. Randomized controlled trial of an online machine learning-driven risk assessment and intervention platform for increasing the use of crisis services. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2019 Apr;87(4):370-379. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000389.

  PMID: 30883164 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Suicide; Depression

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Self-Injurious Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Principal Investigator
• Organization: Harvard University

jaroszewski@fas.harvard.edu

617-496-4484

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: No
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 14, 2018
• First Posted: August 16, 2018
• Study Start: August 10, 2017
• Primary Completion: September 20, 2017
• Study Completion: September 20, 2017
• Last Updated: April 12, 2023
• Results First Posted: April 17, 2019

Record last verified: 2023-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)