Understanding Engagement and Effectiveness of the 'Things You Do' Program

Individuals seeking psychological services for mental health concerns often face barriers to care, including long wait times, cost, stigma, time constraints, geographical limitations, and difficulty accessing culturally sensitive providers. To address these barriers, Internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT) has emerged as a scalable, cost-effective, and accessible alternative to face-to-face therapy for individuals experiencing depression and anxiety. ICBT typically involves the delivery of evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy through online lesson modules over several weeks or months, often accompanied by therapist support through secure messaging and/or telephone calls. However, research suggests that clients are satisfied with and benefit from brief forms of ICBT that require little to no therapist involvement.

In Saskatchewan, the Online Therapy Unit provides ICBT as part of routine care for a range of mental health concerns. Recently, the Unit introduced the Things You Do (TYD) program, a brief ICBT intervention for depression and anxiety that serves as an alternative to the standard 8-week ICBT program. The TYD program consists of a single lesson designed to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and further encourages engagement in everyday healthy actions via daily messaging, referred to as the 'Things You Do'. These healthy actions are organized into five domains: healthy thinking, meaningful activities, goals and plans, healthy routines, and social connections. Research indicates that greater engagement in these healthy actions is associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety, as well as improved overall mental health and well-being. The feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the TYD program in routine care have also yielded promising results in a previous study conducted within the OTU. For instance, the results from this study indicated a significant increase in each of the healthy actions over time. While increased engagement in healthy actions was associated with reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, there are still opportunities to improve outcomes by assessing the effects of further personalizing the intervention on the outcomes. Although the TYD program provides information and strategies to encourage engagement in healthy actions, providing participants with personalized feedback regarding their current level of engagement may further enhance behavior change.

Research has demonstrated that personalized feedback can increase individuals' awareness of their own behaviours, facilitate behaviour change in targeted areas, and contribute to improved outcomes. In addition, personalized feedback has been associated with greater treatment satisfaction. Although personalized feedback has demonstrated benefits in areas such as alcohol misuse and pain management, its potential to promote engagement in healthy actions associated with mental health and well-being has not yet been examined. Providing clients with personalized feedback may increase awareness of their areas of strength, identify opportunities for improvement, and offer suggestions for increasing engagement in healthy behaviours.

The objective of the current study is to examine whether providing personalized feedback based on participants' reported frequency of engaging in healthy actions would encourage greater participation in healthy actions and enhance engagement in the TYD program. Participants will complete outcome measures at screening, Week 3, and Week 5. Primary outcomes include symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, and engagement in healthy actions.

Randomization