Given the migration to more technologically driven services and resources in today’s world, as well as the range of digital innovations and research that have taken shape throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to consider the role that such advancements have played in supporting mental health initiatives. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health service providers utilized technology and online environments more than ever before to care for people’s mental health and emotional needs, which has forced us to raise questions like how COVID-19 has impacted mental health support and services and how technology has helped people with their mental health through this ongoing crisis, along with outlooks for the future. Digital Innovations for Mental Health Support explores a range of current developments and topics surrounding the application of technology in mental health services including the need to examine the availability and forms of technologies to support mental health, how technology is received by people and the providers of services utilizing technology, how online platforms are increasingly being used for support and how efficacious these are, as well as how they are monitored and the issues that arise from their use. This publication provides an outlet with chapters focusing on empirical studies across a variety disciplines that utilize technologies and online platforms to support mental health and emotional well-being, including psychology, counseling, medicine, education, and psychiatry. Covering topics such as counseling online and computer games to support mental health, it is ideal for researchers, academics, healthcare professionals, and students.

Experts discuss the potential of early intervention to transform outcomes for people with mental disorders. Mental illness represents one of the largest disease burdens worldwide, yet treatments have been largely ineffective in improving the quality of life for millions of affected individuals—in part because approaches taken have focused on late-stage disorders in adulthood. This volume shifts the focus by placing the developmental stage of “youth” at the center of mental health. The contributors challenge current nosology, explore mechanisms that underlie the emergence of mental disorders, and propose a framework to guide early intervention. Offering recommendations for the future, the book holds that early intervention in youth has the potential to transform outcomes for people with mental disorders and to reconfigure the landscape of mental health. The contributors discuss epidemiology, classification, and diagnostic issues, including the benefits of clinical staging; the context for emerging mental disorders, including both biological and sociocultural processes; biological mechanisms underlying risk for psychopathology, including aspects of neural circuitry; and developing and implementing prevention and early intervention, including assessment and intervention modalities and knowledge translation in early treatment of schizophrenia. Contributors Nicholas B. Allen, Mario Alvarez-Jimenez, G. Paul Amminger, Shelli Avenevoli, Hannah F. Behrendt, Tolulope Bella-Awusah, Maximus Berger, Byron K. Y. Bitanihirwe, Drew Blasco, John D. Cahill, Joanne S. Carpenter, Andrew M. Chanen, Eric Y. H. Chen, Shane D. Colombo, Christoph U. Correll, Christopher G. Davey, Kim Q. Do, Damien A. Fair, Helen L. Fisher, Sophia Frangou, John Gleeson, Robert K. Heinssen, Ian B. Hickie, Frank Iorfino,Matcheri S. Keshavan, Kerstin Konrad, Phuong Thao D. Le, Francis Lee, Leslie D. Leve, Sarah A. Lieff, Cindy H. Liu, Beatriz Luna, Patrick D. McGorry, Urvakhsh Meherwan Mehta, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Shreya V. Nallur, Cristopher Niell, Merete Nordentoft, Dost Öngür, George C. Patton, Tomáš Paus, Ulrich Reininghaus, Bernalyn Ruiz, Fred Sabb, Akira Sawa, Michael Schoenbaum, Gunter Schumann, Elizabeth M. Scott, Jai Shah, Vinod H. Srihari, Ezra Susser, John Torous, Peter J. Uhlhaas, Swapna K. Verma, T. Wilson Woo, Stephen J. Wood, Lawrence H. Yang, Alison R. Yung

"The focus here is on ways to increase impact of health service innovations that have been tested in pilot or experimental projects so as to benefit more people and to foster policy and programme development on a lasting, sustainable basis." -- p.i Preface.

Disruption often drives innovation, and 2020 was certainly an extraordinary year for all health professionals. Not only did it stretch individual providers and healthcare systems to their limits, it highlighted the urgent and rapid need to mobilize digital health technology, as well as pressure-testing digital health in ways and under timeframes not previously imagined. Many saw the rapid deployment and uptake of telehealth services, partly out of necessity to maintain continuity of care, but also to ensure that those who needed healthcare were still able to access it no matter what their situation or location. This book presents 17 selected papers from the Australian Health Informatics Conference (HIC 2020) – Healthier Lives, Digitally Enabled, held online from 5 – 25 November 2020. This annual conference usually marks the coming together of the nation’s digital health community to discuss, share and showcase current and future initiatives that support the progression of digital health, but in 2020, it took the form of satellite events, culminating with an online Digital Health Institute Summit. The papers presented here reflect highly topical themes across various areas and disciplines, including: digital health in the care of the elderly, mental health, COVID-19, public health, and workforce. Familiar topics, such as wearables, mobile health and remote monitoring, interoperability, and data privacy are also covered, as well as telehealth, automation, bots, and other AI applications. The book will be of interest to all health professionals, especially those working in the fields of digital health informatics and telemedicine.

The purpose of the Mental Health Practice in a Digital World: A Clinicians Guide book is to prepare clinicians to understand, critically evaluate, and embrace well-designed and validated technologies that have the potential of transforming the access, affordability, and accountability of mental healthcare. The reader will become aware of the practical applications of technology in mental health as well as research supporting information technology tools, policy debates. Each chapter contains either examples or scenarios that are relevant to the current practice of mental health care. Policy makers, application developers, scientists, and executives that have lead or supported the use of technologies in real world practice are chapter authors. The goal for this book is to be the key resource for current and future mental health clinicians in the U.S. and around the world to become familiar with technology innovations and how they impact and improve clinical practice.

Artificial Intelligence in Behavioral and Mental Health Care summarizes recent advances in artificial intelligence as it applies to mental health clinical practice. Each chapter provides a technical description of the advance, review of application in clinical practice, and empirical data on clinical efficacy. In addition, each chapter includes a discussion of practical issues in clinical settings, ethical considerations, and limitations of use. The book encompasses AI based advances in decision-making, in assessment and treatment, in providing education to clients, robot assisted task completion, and the use of AI for research and data gathering. This book will be of use to mental health practitioners interested in learning about, or incorporating AI advances into their practice and for researchers interested in a comprehensive review of these advances in one source. - Summarizes AI advances for use in mental health practice - Includes advances in AI based decision-making and consultation - Describes AI applications for assessment and treatment - Details AI advances in robots for clinical settings - Provides empirical data on clinical efficacy - Explores practical issues of use in clinical settings

The increasingly widespread implementation and use of intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) is reshaping dementia care. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of the current state of IATs for dementia care. The new essays collected here examine what IATs will mean for clinical practice and the ethical and regulatory challenges they will pose.