Author: Dr. Jasmine Noble, Postdoctoral Fellow, Departments of Computing Science and Psychiatry, University of Alberta
The challenges we face are known:
Before COVID, you may have heard that it is estimated that one in three of us will directly experience a mental health disorder [1, 2] and that one in three of us who report needing it, would report not receiving adequate care (one in two if you have depression) [3] [4]. However, two years+ into a global pandemic, and these statistics are now looking conservative with 50% of Canadians reporting that their mental health has gotten worse as a result of COVID-19 [ref]. COVID-19 has fueled the flames of multiple mental health stressors for many of us, including around fears of getting sick, life disruptions, and concerns over economic instability [5].
Mental health is health – this is a fact that can’t be ignored. The collective trauma we are experiencing as a global community in the face of an ongoing pandemic, during this period of economic and geopolitical instability, must be met with innovative solutions – solutions that seek to address the novel challenges of today as well as problems that existed long before the pandemic began.
We know what the barriers are. In surveys, respondents have noted several reasons for not seeking help – including stigma related fears, denial, privacy concerns, and trouble connecting with a care provider, to name a few. They may be due to or made worse by fragmented or episodic care, and/or missing navigational supports to help individuals find and connect with the right health services, at the right time. Some wait times for mental health services, for example, have been estimated to be as long as two and a half years, and our mental health system has been described as a “labyrinth” to navigate [6, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11] [12]. To make matters worse, service providers in different sectors and jurisdictions may not be communicating effectively with each other, leaving gaps in provider knowledge of many existing service options within the mental health ecosystem, reducing referrals and thus access to much needed and underutilized services [13, 14, 15, 16, 17].
Opportunity lies in innovation:
Opportunity lies in the innovative application of digital technologies. Digital health innovations have demonstrated, in a variety of different applications, that they can bridge service gaps, increase access to care, and permit greater cross-sectoral system integration [18]. Additionally, over 90% of Canadians already actively use the internet [19, 20], which means technological infrastructure to allow new innovations to reach individuals quickly are already largely in place – we just need to tap into it strategically and effectively.
Technology doesn’t sleep, and it doesn’t need to take a break. This means that it can both support individuals who may be falling through the cracks, while supporting health system players.
Supporting Our Community of Mental Health System Providers:
Digital innovations can be administered in a way that complements existing health services and supports health system players. Sophisticated technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can support overwhelmed mental health system providers by, for example, providing coverage for certain more simple service provision tasks during periods of staff shortages and/or higher demand, while at the same time providing them with information in a more accessible way – at their fingertips – increasing their power to respond to problems efficiently, and quickly, which in turn gives them more time to address more complicated situations, where a sensitive, responsive, human-to-human interaction is not only merited but the only appropriate solution.
Offering another bridge to access care:
There are several reasons why individuals may choose to access online versus in-person services, including 24-hour accessibility, ease of accessibility despite geographic location, anonymity, and privacy [21, 22, 23, 24]. Additionally, the preference of some patients may be to discuss sensitive health matters with a computer or technological device, rather than to another person [25, 26]. Technology then presents another avenue that a client can use to access care in a way that might support the bypassing of traditional barriers to care inherit in the existing system, like stigma.
MIRA, the Mental Health Virtual Assistant
MIRA is an anonymous mental health chatbot, that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (including Natural Language Processing) to provide users with information on mental health issues, services, and programs – whenever they want it, wherever they are – tailored and personalized to their need. This is not the first time that natural language processing or artificial intelligence and machine learning have been used in chatbots to support mental health, but the use of it to support individuals in finding the right mental health services, with the provision of a 700+ resource database that has been vetted for quality, accessible for free, is very novel.
This is just the beginning. This year we hope to translate MIRA into French, and expand service provision to more provinces, and groups including Veterans, and children and youth, while integrating more complex and novel forms of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
We hope you will join us on this very exciting initiative!
Ways to get involved:
- subscribe to our newsletter
- following us on social media
- volunteer to support MIRA efforts and activities
- provide us with feedback on your experience with MIRA so we can improve services
Contact MIRA to get involved!
Visit MyMira.ca.
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