1 - (SYM 11) Designing a Digital Single-session Intervention Focused on Interpersonal Skills for Adolescents with Depression

An increasing number of digital single-session interventions (SSIs) are being developed. However, there is little guidance for mental health researchers on how to design a digital SSI while considering stakeholders’ needs and implementation barriers and facilitators. This presentation describes the iterative process of designing an interpersonal-focused digital SSI for adolescent depression and highlights common challenges, solutions, and lessons learned regarding SSI design.

We adopted a deployment-focused approach (i.e., design the SSI for a specific implementation setting) to maximize utilization and effectiveness. We identified Mental Health America’s (MHA) popular mental health screening platform as an implementation setting that would allow a digital intervention to reach many adolescents with depression, and we established a partnership with MHA. Following the Discover, Design, Build, Test framework (Lyon et al., 2019), we leveraged numerous sources to inform decisions about the initial structure, format, and content of the intervention. We collected pilot data from adolescents with lived experience of depression (n = 39) and MHA users regarding their digital intervention preferences. We also received input from MHA staff and experts in SSIs and adolescent depression. Considering the implementation setting at this stage was critical. For example, we initially considered a multi-session app-based intervention but learned that MHA users would prefer a brief web-based SSI due to its minimal barriers to uptake and completion. Additionally, interpersonal problems are a top concern among adolescent MHA users. An expert in interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents (IPT-A) joined the study team, and we decided to design a web-based SSI teaching core IPT-A skills, as this would appeal to adolescent MHA users and be novel.
We then designed a SSI prototype in Qualtrics, as it allowed for rapid design and revision of the prototype. Feedback on this prototype was elicited through focus groups and interviews with adolescents with lived experience of depression (current n = 3; target n = 7) and mental health providers (n = 3). Rapid qualitative analyses highlighted opportunities to improve the interface (e.g., add graphics), revise certain language to appeal more to older adolescents, and add content to increase utility. These suggestions will be incorporated into the prototype, and we will then re-elicit feedback from adolescents and providers on the implementation of their suggestions.