Ethics & Equity: Youth-Specific Digital Therapeutics and the Continuum of Care

In this conversation, Yuki Kotani of the Child Mind Institute speaks with Stephen Schueller, PhD, Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. They discuss how new digital mental health interventions offer opportunities to bridge gaps in the continuum of care and address challenges to equitable access for underserved or excluded groups — and the work required to make these promises reality. The conversation is part of our webinar series on Technology and Youth Mental Health, which explores how tech can improve mental health outcomes for all young people.

“There is a lot of excitement about digital mental health interventions and digital therapeutics being able to expand access and overcome challenges that have impacted equity,” Schueller said. “But it’s not an emergent property of using technologies that they’re going to automatically overcome access issues. If you don’t think about access issues from the start — about what population you’re trying to reach — and involve them early on, you’re not going to make things more equitable.”

This video is part of a series of discussions on the ethical and equity challenges to accessing and leveraging real world data in youth mental health research. View more videos on this topic:

• Christa Studzinski, PhD, of the Ontario Brain Institute
• Amy Green, PhD, of Hopelab
• Casey Pick, JD, the Trevor Project
• Becca Brendel, MD, JD, of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

View the Full Series

The Child Mind Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donate and support work like the Technology and Youth Mental Health Series.