JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

eHealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic enabled providers to reach families in the face of widespread social distancing restrictions. However, the rapid adoption of eHealth also resulted in the creation of services without community partners' involvement and prioritization, both of which promote family and community-centered approaches to healthcare delivery. It is widely recognized that establishing priorities in healthcare is essential for developing meaningful and reliable health services. As such, there is an urgent need to understand how the individuals who utilize eHealth services can best benefit from them—especially for families, including individuals and communities who have historically faced oppression and systemic barriers to service access.

Objective:

The purpose of this research is to determine the priorities and preferences of youth, parents/caregivers, newcomers,immigrants, and Indigenous community members regarding the use of eHealth in supporting their mental health.

Methods:

This study utilizies a mixed-methods approach combining qualitiative, quantiatative, and art-based methods research. It follows a survey used to identify key knowledge partners who are interested in improving eHealth services for mental health support in Manitoba, Canada. Knowledge partners who are interested in priority setting in focus groups will be contacted to participate. We will facilitate two focus groups across each subgroup of youth, parents/caregivers, newcomers/immigrants, and Indigenous community members where we will use an integrative, quantitatively anchored arts-based method termed “The Circle of Importance” to understand participants mental health priorities and how eHealth or technology may support their mental well-being. Following each focus group, we will evaluate participants and focus group facilitators experiences of “The Circle of Importance” to garner how we can improve the arts-based approach used in the focus groups.

Results:

Findings will directly inform a multi-year applied research agenda for the PRIME theme (Partnering for Research Innovation in Mental Health through eHealth Excellence) , aimed at improving mental health services through engaging key knowledge partners.

Conclusions:

The results may also inform how the use of arts-based methods in priority setting can reflect aspects of experience beyond the capacities of qualitative or quantitative methods alone.