The focus of this study is the impact of usage of a mobile application to support problem-solving therapy on symptoms of anxiety, depression and substance use.
Tribal communities have a problem. They experience a disproportionate rate of substance use and mental illness. Research shows that customized digital tools designed with the community, integrating local culture and resources are more effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, the cost of design and development renders quality app creation for small markets infeasible. Digital Support for Problem-Solving Therapy in a Tribal Community (DSPT) solves this problem through dramatically reducing software design time by using AI for task analysis and to combine tasks, service programs' geographic coordinates and hours and applying the proprietary 7 Gen Blocks software components to reduce development time. The resulting mobile application will be used by intervention groups on two reservations. At baseline, three months and six months post, both the intervention and randomly assigned control group (total N =100) will complete standardized, validated measures of depression, anxiety and substance use disorder symptoms. All participants will be enrolled members in a federally recognized tribe, over 18 years of age and have a diagnosis of an anxiety, depression or substance use disorder.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
100
Mobile app breaking major treatment and social needs into subtasks, providing information, prompts and in-app payment to complete those tasks.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7
Measure of Anxiety Symptoms
Time frame: Six months
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale
Measure of Depression Symptoms
Time frame: Six months
Drug Abuse Screening Test
Screening instrument for abuse of drugs other than alcohol
Time frame: Six months
Michigan Alcohol Screening Test
Screening instrument for abuse of alcohol
Time frame: Six months
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