4 - (SYM 98) Teen Mental Health Services in Public Libraries: Field Testing of Anxiety Management Online Activities

There is incredible public health potential for developing digital mental health (DMH) services; in particular, they have high potential to extend reach and maximize impact if implemented into organizations highly accessed by marginalized populations. Over the past 5 years, our research team has partnered with a community-based teen program within a public library, which is a key social service system for underserved and marginalized populations, to adapt and implement single session online activities with and for teen patrons within the library. Following previous interviews and design workshops, we conducted a field usability trial with 10 teen patrons (M=14.8 yrs) who frequently used their library’s services. The trial aimed to understand and address all major usability problems when teens completed the online activity on their own personal (or public) devices. Teens completed 1 of the 4 available online activities related to anxiety management within the next week. Teens were also asked to take online surveys as well as complete a feedback interview at the end of the week. Teen patrons provided vital feedback on the use of the anxiety management online activities in their daily lives. All teens accessed the online activity via their own personal smartphone; most used the library broadband to complete their activity, whereas others used home or school broadband. Acceptability and usability reports were primarily high, ranging from 1.8-3.6 on a scale of 0-4. The highest endorsed statement was endorsing the online activity helped in managing mental health, whereas the lowest rating was endorsing the online activity was part of their daily routine. The qualitative feedback gleaned critical information on the teens’ likes, such as the examples that included teen’s anxiety-related experiences and that it was easy to use, as well as their dislikes (e.g., too long in length; too few visuals/videos). Our findings suggest public libraries are highly promising settings to deploy DMH services for teens. We identified important likes/dislikes and problems encountered “in the wild” during the field testing that will be remedied prior the launch of the pilot trial.