Even the simple things became too difficult for Melissa Woodall—going to parties with friends, doing charity work in her community, going to see her husband’s performances. At one point, she was only able to handle going to work, home, and the grocery store. One day, she decided she’d had enough.
After seeing several Facebook advertisements for Joyable, a mobile mental health application aiming to help users with social anxiety, Woodall, a liquor store manager and Portsmouth, Arkansas, resident, decided to try the app this June. It was reasonably priced, and it was more convenient than scheduling appointments for in-person therapy visits. In August, she completed the program.
“I liked it a lot, [and I liked] that it was not in person. I felt a little bit more comfortable on the phone,” Woodall says. “It was like getting armed with better skills to deal with things, adding skills to my social toolbox.”
According to a 2015 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report, 31.5 percent adults age 18 and older with serious mental illnesses, meaning diagnosable, mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders did not receive mental-health treatment or counseling in 2014. With a variety of digital therapeutic services designed to bridge that gap, Woodall is one of many who have turned to mobile therapy apps in search of a convenient solution to help resolve their mental-health challenges. As technology continues to improve medical care overall, many start-ups like Joyable have created mobile health apps as a more affordable, flexible option than in-person, scheduled visits. Though these apps could bring mental health care to a wider range of individuals, there is ambiguity within the mental health care community about which apps are the best and how to apply such technology to meet their patients’ needs.p
[For more of this story, written by Tatiana Walk-Morris, go to https://psmag.com/can-mental-h...ae6fadeaf#.8puu2836m]
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