Developing, Administering, and Evaluating Online Psychotherapy and Psychoeducation Programs for Postsecondary Students Within a Regional Mental Health Hub in Ontario, Canada Using AI-assisted Online Interventions

The proposed regional mental healthcare hub aims to deliver equitable, efficacious, and cost-effective AI-driven online psychoeducation and diagnosis-specific online cognitive behavioural therapy (e-CBT) programs for post-secondary students in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) region. The initiative will target a broad population of students ranging from those interested in learning more about mental health (online psychoeducation program) to those seeking additional help for their psychiatric symptoms (e-CBT program). Our research team is strongly experienced in designing effective AI-assisted online psychoeducation and diagnosis-specific e-CBT programs for various mental health conditions in diverse populations. Therefore, being as effective as in-person methods of healthcare delivery, it is hypothesized that our online interventions disseminated via a robust implementation science and community collaboration strategy will be a feasible, cost-effective, and pragmatic solution to address accessibility issues with post-secondary student mental healthcare.

The proposed mental health hub will offer a comprehensive care model using a stepped-care approach. Its implementation will be guided by a rigorous approach involving seven aims divided into three phases (pre-adoption, delivery, and post-adoption phases). (1) Pre-adoption phase: will assess post-secondary students' current mental health landscape through surveys and focus groups (Aim 1). This information will be used in the development of a 6-week online psychoeducation (Aim 2) and 12-week diagnosis-specific e-CBT (Aim 3) programs. The psychoeducation program will be followed by 6-months of AI-assisted journaling exercises to monitor the student's mental health and determine whether they would benefit from stepping up their care to receive the diagnosis-specific e-CBT program. The diagnosis-specific e-CBT programs will be adapted from prior clinically validated and diagnosis-specific psychotherapy modules developed by the lab. Four diagnosis-specific modules will support the most common mental health disorders in students (GAD, SAD, MDD and ADHD), as indicated by previous studies and the research team's cross-sectional survey of students in Ontario, Canada. Both programs will be delivered through the Online Psychotherapy Tool (OPTT) - a secure cloud-based platform co-developed by the PI that offers online mental health interventions. (2) Delivery phase: will determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the online psychoeducation (Aim 4) and diagnosis-specific e-CBT (Aim 5) programs by comparing them to treatment, as usual, using validated clinical assessment tools. (3) Post-adoption phase: will use the collected data to monitor the success and fidelity of the programs using surveys and focus groups (Aim 6), and to build capacity and scale the project to other Canadian municipalities (Aim 7). As such, in contrast to other initiatives that target student mental health, this will be the first to involve students and end-users in all phases, from conception to implementation.

The digital nature of this healthcare program and the implementation of AI technology results in new solutions that enable easier accessibility and broader reach to individuals in significant need of mental healthcare services. Therefore, to support the development of these mental healthcare resources, the research team has assembled a diverse, cross-functional interdisciplinary team of community leaders, including researchers, clinicians, health decision-makers, and end-users. Ultimately, leveraging the extensive expertise of a cross-functional research team, the objective of the study is to develop and implement a successful and effective digital care plan with the potential to improve post-secondary student mental health care substantially.