Digital Health Week 2024 ePoster Gallery

#DigitalHealthWeek24

Australian LGBTQ+ youth experience significant mental health disparities, including high rates of anxiety and depression and difficulties accessing peer and professional support. Research shows that digital mental health self-care interventions can improve mental health outcomes for the broader population. However, the ‘digitisation of health’ risks exacerbating existing inequities experienced by vulnerable communities if developers fail to consider their distinct needs, values, motivations, etc. To ‘configure the user as everybody’ excludes diverse, often-forgotten communities, affecting intervention relevancy, acceptability, up-take, etc. To alleviate the risk of bias and to advance inclusivity in the realisation of digital health interventions calls for stakeholder engagement, value sensitivity, and cultural humility in design processes; to be inclusive by design. This formative research centres on the value sensitive design (VSD) of digital mental health self-care interventions for Australian LGBTQ+ youth to improve mental health outcomes, literacy, information-seeking behaviour, and service experience. Following VSD, this initial work identifies select existing interventions that may benefit this community and thereafter explores the various stakeholders, stakeholder values, and value tensions related to intervention use. Exemplary interventions include adapted self-care material, health education materials, digital storytelling, service navigation instructional videos, etc., which could be delivered through service partners’ digital channels, mobile apps, social media, online video platforms, etc. This work provides the groundwork for future co-design and pre- and post-intervention trials to best understand the values and needs of Australian LGBTQ+ youth, inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of suitable interventions, and measure mental health outcomes, literacy, information-seeking behaviour, and service experience.