Dr. Shari McDaid:

Mental Health Reform has been looking at e-mental health or digital mental health in recent years because we are the Irish partner for a cross-north-western Europe project to explore this. Mental Health Reform wanted to be in that role because we are in a position to open up the discussion about digital mental health, to explore the pros and cons involved and to facilitate knowledge sharing so people, in the professions as well as service users and service providers, can be fully informed. There is a basis for figuring out what that role should be. What we are seeing in the evidence is that it is effective, particularly in a blended therapy approach. What we mean by that is that digital mental health support is a complement to the support that is provided by a mental health professional. Particularly in primary care, one could think of a digital mental health support as being book-ended by an initial consultation with a mental health professional and then follow-up with a mental health professional. In between, however, we are getting pretty good evidence that the online programme, particularly online cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT, is something people can do. In addition, the mental health professional is always informed as to how he or she is getting on in the programme. The information is available in order that the mental health professional can see the progress.

What does it do? First, it makes the mental health support much more accessible to people wherever they are. This is a significant issue. For example, I have heard of situations where, for example, mothers with young children find it very helpful to be able to access a mental health professional online because it is very difficult for them to get organised and have the opportunity to go to an appointment on their own. For people where stigma is an issue, digital mental health can help them to access support whereby they do not have to go onto the high street and into a clinic that says "mental health" on the storefront. We think there is potential. We are really interested in exploring that and discovering how to ensure that it is done in a safe way and on the basis of good practice. We held a joint seminar with the Psychological Society of Ireland last year to make sure that we are all learning about the appropriate way to bring digital mental health into the system.