Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Nov 27, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 5, 2018 - Jan 3, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 20, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mental Health Website for Adults With an Intellectual Disability: Qualitative Evaluation
Background:
Electronic mental health (e-mental health) programs for people with an intellectual disability are currently underexplored but may provide a way of mitigating some of the barriers that this population faces in accessing appropriate mental health services.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of Healthy Mind, an e-mental health program for adults with an intellectual disability developed by the Black Dog Institute, focusing on the design and implementation of the website.
Methods:
A qualitative research design was used, which involved semistructured interviews and focus groups with people with an intellectual disability, support workers, and allied health professionals. People with an intellectual disability were also observed while using the website. A thematic analysis was used to interrogate the interview transcripts and observational field notes.
Results:
Participants found the content of the website informative and appreciated the many ways that the website had been made accessible to users. Participants voiced some differing requirements regarding the way information should be presented and accessed on the website. Acknowledging different types of support needs was identified as an important issue for website dissemination.
Conclusions:
The Healthy Mind website promises to provide an excellent tool for people with ID and their supporters. This research has pragmatic implications for the future development and implementation of the program, while contributing to knowledge in the broader fields of e-mental health and inclusive design for people with an intellectual disability.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.