Integration of online resources into face-to-face therapeutic interactions: Development phase of the Self-Management and Recovery Technology (SMART) research program

The development of online resources for mental health problems has focused primarily on automated online resources as an alternative to face-to-face therapy. A key next stage in development is to examine how the specific potentials of web-based technology can be integrated into face-to-face delivery. The Self-Management and Recovery Technology (SMART) program is a research program to develop and trial online resources for integration within mental health services in the state of Victoria in Australia. With a focus on severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, SMART provides particular potentials for materials aimed at promoting personal recovery, the process of adjustment to living with persisting mental health problems. We report upon a phase of systematic focus group consultation with mental health service users and mental health workers across clinical and non-government organisation sectors to inform the design and development of SMART. Online multimedia were seen as valuable in facilitating integrate discussion of peers' lived experience into the work of professionally trained mental health workers, promoting modelling of hopeful recovery. Peer multimedia were also seen as valuable in facilitating discussion of difficult issues. Meanwhile the need for flexible design of resources and divergence from a linear modular format were viewed as important in making materials suitable for integration with face-to-face interaction. We conclude by considering the potentials for resources based upon this model to facilitate broader psychotherapeutic processes