Evaluatie van een behandelondersteunende app in de jeugd-GGZ.

An important development in (youth) mental healthcare is the application of online interventions as an addition to and improvement of care. These interventions can be designed to be used fully online and ‘stand-alone’ or designed in such a way that they should be combined with face-to-face contacts with therapists (“blended care”). Mental healthcare prefers some type of support by therapists, and thus prefers blended care. To improve the frequency of use of an app in mental healthcare, and lower possible resistance of therapists and youngsters, designers often apply different design strategies. A promising strategy is called “gamification”, that aims to enhance the involvement of a client with the online therapy by applying game-elements. Gamification is applied in different ways in (youth)mental healthcare, but not systematically studied. This makes it almost impossible to know when and how is strategy works within this context.



In this study we will evaluate the therapy-supportive Luca app that has been developed by Brijder Jeugd, De Jutters and Lucertis Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie and is currently being implemented in these three companies of Parnassia Groep as part of regular therapy.



The overall aim of this study is to generate a first impression about the usability of the therapy-supportive Luca app with youngsters in youth mental healthcare. For this purpose, we will ask the following research questions:

1. How do therapists and youngsters accept the Luca app, regarding frequency of use and experiences with the app?

2. Is a higher frequency of use of the Luca app related to a better therapy progression (i.e. course of complains, therapy retention, motivation for therapy and substance use)?

3. Is the Luca app with a gamified therapy-goals module more frequently used compared to the Luca app with a non-gamified therapy-goals module?

4. Do youngsters that received the Luca app with a gamified therapy-goals module have a better course of complains, therapy retention, motivation for therapy and less substance use compared to youngsters that received the Luca app with a non-gamified therapy-goals module?



This is a non-controlled (and thus non-randomized) prospective study, with 60 youngsters of the youth mental healthcare institutions Brijder Jeugd and Lucertis, that receive the therapy-supportive Luca app in the context of outpatient cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT, their regular therapy). Pre-tests will take place at the start of their therapy and post-tests after eight weeks. The first 30 youngsters who, according to their registration at the therapy centre, participate in the study receive - besides CBT - the Luca app with a non-gamified therapy goals module and the following 30 youngsters receive the Luca app with a gamified therapy goals module.

The overall aim of this study is to generate a first impression about the usability of the therapy-supportive Luca app with youngsters in youth mental healthcare. For this purpose, we will ask the following research questions:



1. How do therapists and youngsters accept the Luca app, regarding frequency of use and experiences with the app?



2. Is a higher frequency of use of the Luca app related to a better therapy progression (i.e. course of complains, therapy retention, motivation for therapy and substance use)?



3. Is the Luca app with a gamified therapy-goals module more frequently used compared to the Luca app with a nongamified therapy-goals module?



4. Do youngsters that received the Luca app with a gamified therapy-goals module have a better course of complains, therapy retention, motivation for therapy and less substance use compared to youngsters that received the Luca app with a non-gamified therapy-goals module?

Start.

post-test: after 8 weeks

In this study we will evaluate a therapy-supportive app that has been developed by Brijder Jeugd, De Jutters and Lucertis Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie and is currently being implemented in these three companies of Parnassia Groep as part of regular therapy. The Luca app supports patients to also work on their therapy at home. To use Luca, patientand therapist both download the Luca app. The therapist can, with permission of a client, see what the client has described in the Luca app.



The Luca app consists of different therapy-supportive modules. To study the added value of gamification on the therapy progression (course of complaints, therapy retention, motivation for therapy and substance use), we have designed two different versions of one module, i.e. the therapygoals module. One version of the therapy-goals module is gamified and the other version is not-gamified. With both versions, youngsters and their therapists can set therapy related goals, but the gamified version also exist of some game-elements that suit the target group. For example, youngsters can estimate the difficulty of the goals they set and estimate their expectation that they will achieve these goals and rewards. By achieving goals they work towards rewards they have set with their therapist. Their progression in setting and achieving goals is also visualized by using a using mountain as a metaphor.



The Luca app also consists of three other non-therapy supportive modules, on which we will not focus during the study. These are: a personal non-therapy-related goals module (where youngsters can set their own goals - without any contact with their therapist - that do not have a direct link with their therapy), an information module (for more information about Luca), and a profile module where the client can change his or her profile).