L01 – So you Want to Treat Depression by Playing on your Phone?: Depression Self-Management in Integrated Primary Care

Summary

Depression is one of the most common mental health concerns treated in primary care settings. As underserved communities often struggle accessing traditional health care with the same regularity as other patients, treatment in primary care is vital for underserved populations who have higher rates of health disparities. Using smartphone apps has been one proposed solution to help increase access to care. Recently the MINDLamp mobile app has been used to supplement depression treatment and augment patient self-management of depression. Although new evidence suggests patients across the socioeconomic spectrum are interested in using apps to supplement depression treatment and more mental health apps are available than ever before, little guidance exists for medical and behavioral health integrated primary care providers interested in incorporating mobile apps in the treatment of depression. Filling this gap is crucial to facilitate implementation of app use in the treatment of depression in primary care clinics and develop evidence-based training in order increase access to underserved patient populations. Attendees, at any stage of their education or career, will learn about the process and results of a study that explored the implementation and use of a shared-decision making model to facilitate the use of the MINDLamp app in the treatment of depression in a primary care clinic. Adult patients with an active depression diagnosis were eligible to participate. Information from this study will enable attendees to efficiently evaluate patients who may benefit most from incorporating mobile app use into the treatment of depressive symptoms. The presentation will also include descriptive statistics, survey results, and future directions will be discussed.