Panel Discussion 12 - Making Digital Mental Health Interventions Work for Diverse Populations: How to Avoid Mistakes of the Past

Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) hold the promise to reduce the treatment gap affecting marginalized groups that are underserved by the mental health system (Ramos & Chavira, 2019). Nevertheless, most DMHIs have been designed and tested with affluent, English-speaking, White female populations that significantly differ from these diverse groups. Therefore, some have argued that DMHIs need to be explicitly designed for diverse populations or at least be culturally adapted to ensure their validity, relevance, and effectiveness. Although culturally adapted DMHIs seem to be effective (Ellis et al., 2022), comparisons between culturally adapted versus non-adapted DMHIs are rare (Spanhel et al., 2022), and when these are conducted, the culturally adapted DMHIs often fail to outperform the original programs (Balci et al., 2022). This is a pattern of findings well documented for traditional treatments (Huey et al., 2023). Given that designing new DMHIs for specific populations or culturally adapting already existing ones is an intensive process that might only be feasible in some settings, guiding principles and practices on when, how, and how much to modify are needed. 
Aligned with this year’s theme of innovative delivery models to increase scale and sustainability of CBT interventions, particularly in underresourced and historically excluded communities, this panel seeks to 1) examine multiple theoretical and data-driven approaches to designing and culturally adapting DMHIs, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses; 2) draw practical lessons from panelists’ experiences designing and adapting DMHIs for historically marginalized populations; and 3) discuss "best practices" for the successful design and implementation of DMHIs with diverse populations. Discussants hold academic, industry, and leadership positions in large national organizations and bring extensive expertise in the design, development, and testing of DMHIs; the use of DMHIs with historically marginalized groups; and the development of strategies to improve the cultural fit of DMHIs and reduce barriers to treatment engagement in diverse populations. Panelists will provide actionable strategies to researchers, developers, and clinicians interested in DMHIs.