Surveillance medicine: exploring the social and ethical implications of digital mental health innovations

The surveillance medicine project explores the social and ethical impacts of digital mental health and how digital mental health tools and interventions may be designed more inclusively for diverse communities (LGBTQIA+, culturally diverse, and regional communities). The project was conducted in partnership with a large-scale national mental health organisation that promotes evidence-based intervention, treatment, and support for mental health in young people and their families. The organisation wanted to develop a national online platform for parents and young people that integrates psychological assessments and intervention pathways via an online ‘check in’ tool. We came into the project to focus on how the future-facing platform could be designed more inclusively to ensure that it would be relevant and accessible to previously underserved populations using participatory research methods.

Research questions

1. What are the possible benefits, burdens, or trade-offs of how mental health data is collected, shared, and used?
2. How do end-users value data about mental health and whom they will share their data with?
3. What are the social factors that influence the use and application of digital technologies, including third party use?
4. How is predictive information communicated and understood, and what impact on clinical practice might this  have?

Publications

Butorac, I., & Carter, A. (2021). The Coercive Potential of Digital Mental Health. The American Journal of Bioethics, 21(7), 28–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2021.1926582