JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Adolescence is a life stage characterized by intense development and increased vulnerability. Yet, often due to stigma and embarrassment, young people rarely seek help. Alarmingly, even those who do may not be able to receive it. Wellbeing-focussed interventions offer a protective factor against adversity. Highly-effective innovative, accessible and engaging mHealth interventions which look beyond mental ill-health and towards mental wellbeing are urgently needed.

Objective:

This qualitative study aimed to explore how young Australians conceptualize and construct recovery journeys from feeling unwell towards wellbeing and to inform the conceptual design of a youth-led information-, resource- and support-focused mHealth intervention.

Methods:

Twenty-five young people, aged 12 to 25 years were divided into three age groups to take part in three face-to-face participatory design workshops each. Young people’s understanding and representation of wellbeing, feeling unwell, and the recovery journey in-between was investigated using visual and linguistic data-collection methods of photo elicitation and journey mapping. Thematic analysis was informed by a social constructionist perspective, producing a conceptual model of the recovery journey. A mobile app was co-designed and iteratively developed and tested by young people and a team of psychology, research, design and IT experts, mapping all app functions.

Results:

Young people described a six-stage journey with specific barriers and coping strategies. The findings are then situated within the personal recovery framework in mental health and emphasize the cyclic and iterative model of change. Through co-design, the new app – Niggle – was conceptualized as a visual representation of an amorphous problem, which can be addressed through app functions corresponding to the most helpful strategies young people use to progress through the stages of their recovery journey.

Conclusions:

¬Niggle is available to offer support to young people for a range of problems and provides a hot link to counselling services in Australia. This study presents an insight into young people’s understanding of wellbeing and recovery. It elaborates on the process of in-depth qualitative data collection through visual, linguistic methods and co-design. This paper could aid the development of high quality personalizable mHealth interventions and support resources.