The TEAM network will focus on the design, development and evaluation of new technology enabled mental health services. The overall objective is to train this new generation of researchers who can help to deliver more effective, affordable and accessible mental health services for young people.
Research shows that untreated mental health difficulties in early life are associated with at least a threefold increase in odds of having a mental health disorder in later life. Early research, including key contributions by TEAM ITN members, has demonstrated significant potential for technology-enabled YMH.
OBJECTIVES
Our research program is built around four key research objectives (ROs), focused around key challenges in improving YMH services. We will deliver new technologies that support rapid, large-scale, and early assessment, prevention and treatment of mental health difficulties in young people.
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RO1 – Assess: Development of automated, technology-enabled assessment tools for improved early diagnosis and intelligent on-going assessment of mental-health difficulties in young people.
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RO2 – Prevent: Design of technology-enabled programs that help to prevent mental health difficulties by empowering young people and helping to build resilience and care for their own mental health, thus reducing the incidence of mental health difficulties.
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RO3 – Treat: Development of technology-enabled tools that support improved access to effective, engaging and evidence-based treatments that are adaptable and involve a wider range of care providers.
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RO4 – Policy: Investigation of key policy areas in relation to the delivery of technology-enabled mental health, including shared decision-making, open data and legal and ethical frameworks.
RESEARCH
CACHET is responsible for two specific projects within TEAM:
This project will enable unsupervised and non-clinical assessment of cognitive functioning of mentally ill patients using a computer- and smartphone-based platform. This platform allows for combining assessment of cognitive functioning with longitudinal assessment of objective features of everyday behaviour, as well as visual analytics for patients to explore relationships in cognitive dysfunctions. The platform will be developed in an iterative user-centred design process including two clinical trials.
This project will provide a platform for open-access data collection, sharing, and visual analytics of behavioural data collected from wearable and mobile sensors. Ultimately this platform will allow researchers to share clinically collected behavioural data and run standardized analytics on it, enabling researchers to find patterns in mental disorders across a large number of patients, and also supporting rigorous replication.
