{"title":"Assessing access: Texting hotline app provides mental health crisis care for economically deprived youth","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117369","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Due to rapidly increasing youth suicides in the U.S state of Utah, the legislature funded creation of a 24/7 texting-based smartphone app in Spanish and English targeting Utah's school aged population. Recent research elsewhere (in the Netherlands) suggests cost inhibits help seeking among the economically disadvantaged. We evaluate the relationship between poverty and app usage during the onset of the COVID-19.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>Local demographics, social determinants of health and COVID-19 infection rates were modeled using a Bayesian spatio-temporal approach examining usage rates.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>When controlling for generally researched suicide crisis covariates, app usage is shown to vary depending on economic status of the population, with the largest relative increases in use among disadvantaged youth.</div></div><div><h3>Discussion</h3><div>This bilingual Spanish/English, texting (SMS) based, smart phone app crisis hotline proved effective at providing adolescents from certain populations access to mental health care. The groups discussed are in Census Block Groups (CBGs – neighborhoods) with higher poverty, and/or lower population density (rural areas). The usage of the crisis hotline by these populations increased relative to the overall population as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. However, adolescents from areas of higher mobility (our proxy for housing insecure) and those in areas with larger non-White populations had a relative decrease in usage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Science & Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624008232","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
Due to rapidly increasing youth suicides in the U.S state of Utah, the legislature funded creation of a 24/7 texting-based smartphone app in Spanish and English targeting Utah's school aged population. Recent research elsewhere (in the Netherlands) suggests cost inhibits help seeking among the economically disadvantaged. We evaluate the relationship between poverty and app usage during the onset of the COVID-19.
Method
Local demographics, social determinants of health and COVID-19 infection rates were modeled using a Bayesian spatio-temporal approach examining usage rates.
Results
When controlling for generally researched suicide crisis covariates, app usage is shown to vary depending on economic status of the population, with the largest relative increases in use among disadvantaged youth.
Discussion
This bilingual Spanish/English, texting (SMS) based, smart phone app crisis hotline proved effective at providing adolescents from certain populations access to mental health care. The groups discussed are in Census Block Groups (CBGs – neighborhoods) with higher poverty, and/or lower population density (rural areas). The usage of the crisis hotline by these populations increased relative to the overall population as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. However, adolescents from areas of higher mobility (our proxy for housing insecure) and those in areas with larger non-White populations had a relative decrease in usage.
期刊介绍:
Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.