UCD Computing and Mental Health

YouthDMH
The EU COST Action, YouthDMH, is establishing a sustainable pan-European network, that is inclusive, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral. It will support knowledge creation, transfer, and policy dissemination and lay the foundations for coordinated action on technology to support mental health in young people. (more)

Online Help-Seeking
Help-seeking is an important first step in addressing mental health difficulties. Evidence suggests that positive help-seeking experiences contribute to an increased likelihood of future help-seeking and improved mental health outcomes.This project explores the theoretical foundations of help-seeking and provides guidelines for the design on online help-seeking technologies. (more)

FinHealth
This project involves the passive assessment of mental health using financial (and other) data via machine learning. (more)

Student Mental Health
The time we spend in higher education is one of great opportunity, but also involves unique challenges and can be a time of significant change. As members of the a university community we have a natural interest in the mental health of our fellow students. Several of our projects focus on understanding and improving student mental health. (more)

Young people’s use of AI tools
Children and young people encounter AI-driven technologies daily, from recommendation systems to smart home devices and generative AI tools. This project, part of a broader European project spearheaded by EU Kids Online, explores their experiences and concerns, aiming to contribute to debates on privacy, algorithmic impacts, and datafication. (more)

Youth Mental Health Lab
Based in the UCD School of Psychology the Youth Mental Health Lab was established in 2013 to promote research in youth mental health and to translate research findings into a positive impact on the lives of young people. (more)

TAC Toolkit – technology acceptance
Led by Camille Nadal, this project began as part of her PhD research at Trinity College Dublin. It focuses on developing methodologies that support the design of technologies which people are more likely to accept and use in the long term. (more)

TEAM ITN
TEAM was a 4 year Innovation Training Network (ITN), funded by EU Horizon 2020 under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. It provided PhD training in technology enabled mental health. CMH@UCD coordinated TEAM, which include 15 individual projects focused on the assessment, prevention and treatment of mental health difficulties in young people. (more)

Smartwatch based mood monitoring
Smartwatches have the potential to deliver enhanced self-reports, but their acceptance in clinical mental health settings is unexplored. Working in collaboration with the UK’s National Health Service this project evaluated the acceptance of smartwatch mood monitoring when integrated with an 8-week blended intervention. (more)

Interact
Traditional approaches to psychotherapy emphasise face-to-face contact. Interact is a 6-year NIHR funded programme investigating blended cognitive behavioural therapy. It integrates face-to-face contact, electronic contact, online collaboration, and support for between-session activities. (more)

Pesky gNATs
Pesky gNATs is designed for use by mental health professionals working with young people experiencing anxiety or low mood. It consists of a computer game and  mobile app, together with online training for mental health professionals. Different versions are available for younger and older adolescents. (more)

The ID Game
In spite of its evidence base in the general population, computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has not previously been adapted for use with people with intellectual disability. This project explores a game-based intervention to support CBT for adults with an intellectual disability. (more)

Attitudes towards mental health research repositories
This project investigated public attitudes toward contributing to digital health research repositories to identify factors for their acceptance and to inform future developments. Further details are available in the following papers: (JMIR2021) (NordiCHI’20)

Gamification of Cognitive Assessment
This project was a collaboration with the University of Bristol, led by Jim Lumsden. It looked at the potential of gamification techniques to increase long term adherence to online cognitive testing. Further details are available in the following papers: (JMIR2017) (JMIR2016)