Compassionate technology in mental healthcare: the value of compassion when working with digital mental health interventions.
Type of research (qualitative empirical, quantitative empirical, mixed-method): different options possible in consultation.
Description:
Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can play a role in improving mental health care and meeting the rising demands for care. However, the implementation DMHIs into care remains challenging. Mental health professionals have doubts about whether using DMHIs detracts from the personal, empathic relationship with their clients. Moreover, they are unsure of why and how to use DMHIs.
For a smoother and more meaningful implementation of technology, it is important to take values and motivations of stakeholders in mental health care into account. An essential value and a common motivation for mental health professionals is compassion. In short, compassion refers to the recognition and alleviation of suffering (Strauss et al., 2016). Thus, in the Compassionate technology project we focus on compassion in the design and use of mental health technologies.
For your thesis, there are different options for you to work on. For example, we have developed two scales together with practitioners and clients to evaluate DMHI use on compassion. These scales need to be tested further on validity and reliability. Furthermore, we have developed compassion-focused implementation materials (in the form of a card set) for the use of smartwatches in mental health care, which could offer an interesting topic of study. If you are interested in contributing to research on compassion and technology, we can discuss what is most suitable to focus on.
To read more about the rationale of this project, visit https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/compassionatetechnology/.