JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

COVID 19 and its public health response are having a profound effect on people’s mental health. In order to provide supports during these times Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital (CAMH) launched the Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic website on March 18, 2020. This website was designed to be a non-stigmatizing psycho-educational resource for people experiencing mild to moderate distress due to COVID-19 and the public health response to the pandemic.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to examine the reach, usability and user perceptions of the CAMH Mental Health and COVID-19 Pandemic website.

Methods:

This study utilized a mix-method sequential explanatory design approach, which consisted of two distinct phases: 1) quantitative data collection and analysis followed by, 2) qualitative semi structured interviews. In phase 1, we analyzed google analytics data to understand how many people visited the website, and which were the most visited pages. We conducted a survey to identify users’ socio-demographic background, and assess the usability of the website using the System Usability Scale (SUS) tool, and users subjective stress levels using the perceived stress scale (PSS-10). For phase 2, we conducted semi-structured interviews to explore user experiences, their motivation, engagement, satisfaction and perception of the stress reduction strategies, and reflections of the website’s functionality, ease of use, navigation, design, and recommendations for improvement.

Results:

Google analytic results showed 146,978 unique users from June 2020 to March 2021. Most users were from Canada (88.5 %). Between February 20, 2021 and June 4, 2021, 152 users completed the survey. Most users identified as white, female, and having at least a college degree. Based on the PSS-10 scores, most participants were experiencing moderate to high stress when they visited the website. Users rated the usability of the website as acceptable. Ten users completed in-depth interviews between May 2021 and June 2021. Positive feedback related to the content was that the website was a trustworthy source of mental health information with helpful evidence-based stress reduction strategies. Areas for improvement included the text heavy design of the website, wider dissemination/marketing, and greater accessibility of the website to meet the needs of diverse populations.

Conclusions:

Adding stress reduction resources in a website from a well-respected institution may be a practical method to increase awareness and access to evidence-based stress reduction resources during times of crisis where there is severe disruption to usual health care contacts. Efforts are still needed to ensure that these resources are more widely accessed especially by diverse populations.