A collaborative effort between a Lakehead University researcher, Children's Centre Thunder Bay, and Dilico Anishinabek Family Care is receiving $100,000 in funding to evaluate the effective of an app to support mental health in young adults.
The JoyPop app was created in 2017 by a team of Pediatric researchers and Professors at McMaster University. The app aims to have youths rate their levels of happiness and provide them with activities that can help them cope.
Aislin Mushquash, a Lakehead University associate professor who is also a clinical psychologist with the Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, said that the funding is part of the work she and her team have been conducting for the last few years that was based on a pilot project to see if youths would use the mobile app.
“We received some funding a couple of years ago through the Thunder Bay Community Foundation to support a pilot study that we ran at Children’s Centre and Dilico to see if this app was something that youth were even interested in using,” said Mushquash.
Although, the JoyPop app is geared toward youth in their teens, Mushquash examined the app’s benefits for young adults who are transitioning into post-secondary school.
During the pilot project, Mushquash conducted a study at Lakehead University, which yielded positive results. The project lasted a month and Mushquash report that out of 28 days, youth used the app for 20 during those days.
“Knowing that this is often a stressful time where drawing on resources and community supports and resilience would be helpful in navigating the stressful transitions to university,” Mushquash said.
After introducing the app to the youths, Mushquash and her team found that those using the app on regular bases there were improvements in their symptoms of depression and regulating their emotions.
“With each additional day that those transitional youths used the app, they see a corresponding improvement in terms of their symptom of depression and in terms of their emotion regulation skill. So, their ability to understand their emotions, make sense of their emotions, and manage their emotions in effective ways. We see corresponding improvements in those skills the more they use the app across a month we tested them,” Mushquash said.
Since finding that young adults are willing to adopt the app and the data showing that these youths are improving their mental health, Mushquash and her team took further ensure a wider study into the benefit of JoyApp.
The feedback she received from some of the participants shows positive results. Mushquash revealed that those who used the app not only enjoyed the features but also the privacy.
“There was a lot of positive feedback. One youth said that this is the first thing that has ever worked for me. I really like all the features within the app. I think that there is a journal. I can write down my thoughts. People are going to judge me for seeking out counselling,” said Mushquash.
Based on that feedback from participants in the pilot and from the clinicians who offer it to the youth they were counselling led Mushquash to apply for additional funding.
“With this new funding, we are able to evaluate it using a more rigorous research design,” said Mushquash.
She explains that they will be performing a randomized control trial. For this part of the study, the research team will be gathering data from two distinct control groups. The team will be specifically targeting youths on a waiting list seeking professional help.
The object is to compare the data on the youth on the waiting list who receive the app to the data of youth who don’t receive the app to look at outcomes across time.
“This will really tell us could this app be used as something as a positive resource for youth as they are waiting for traditional medical services, could it be integrated into services that clinicians can use alongside the traditional practices among youth,” said Mushquash.
Mushquash said the trial with be run through Dilico Anishinabek Family Care and the Thunder Bay Children Centre. 90 youth participants between the ages of 17-25 will be picked for the trial, and the trial will run for about 2 years.
“I think our project is unique in our partnerships with Children Centre and with Dilico because we are going to be able to recruit a diverse sample of youth and really be able to speak to culturally the benefit of an app like this before it rolled out to broadly,” said Mushquash.
Musquash said eligible participants will come from anywhere in the Northwestern and Superior North regions, including Indigenous communities, and across the gender spectrum.
“Through conversations with our partners, we are able to talk about what would be the ideal ways to roll this out and would this be something that in communities where there may be less access to traditional medical supports or there may be access but there are some concerns around that privacy piece, where everyone knows who the councillor is, and you are going to see the councillor, everybody knows your going to see the counsellor,” said Mushquash.
With some of these e-mental health technologies, the JoyPop app will provide privacy for those anxious about seeking help from a mental health professional.
