Stephen Schueller

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of California, Irvine

Peers are individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges trained to provide support to others with similar challenges. Help@Hand was a multi-site project that integrated peers into digital mental health intervention (DMHI) implementation. This study uses the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to frame challenge...

BACKGROUND Disability is an increasingly prevalent issue in the United States, which affects over 67 million people. Poor mental health in individuals with disabilities is common; however, access to traditional modes of mental healthcare remains a challenge. OBJECTIVE This study aims to compare use of traditional and online mental healthcare servi...

Online self-guided single-session interventions (SSIs), which provide a complete mental health intervention in one brief experience (typically 20-30 minutes), promise to increase global access to evidence-based support. One way to expand current SSIs’ reach is to shorten them, but doing so could also compromise their effectiveness. We conducted two...

Online self-guided single-session interventions (SSIs), which provide a complete mental health intervention in one brief experience (typically 20-30 minutes), promise to increase global access to evidence-based support. One way to expand current SSIs’ reach is to shorten them, but doing so could also compromise their effectiveness. We conducted two...

As social status and peer feedback-seeking are developmentally salient aspects of adolescence, social media has become a highly relevant arena for youth to explore their identities and social selves. Contrary to popular notions that social media inherently decreases opportunities to meaningfully connect with others “in real life,” this chapter conc...

Concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of digital technology use on youth mental health and well-being are high. However, most studies have several methodological limitations: relying on cross-sectional designs and retrospective reports, assessing technology use as an omnibus construct, and focusing on between- instead of within-person c...

Objective: Large online mental health communities exist for both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) on Reddit. These communities have not been sufficiently understood through prior work. Method: Posts (N = 86,267) from r/ptsd and r/CPTSD subreddits from December 2020 to December 2022 were collecte...

Background People with disabilities face many health, economic and social disparities. Loneliness is recognized as a significant issue for this group however, its impact on students with disabilities (SWDs) remains a critically underexplored area of research. Importantly, as higher education continues its transition to the digital space, the potent...

Background Technology-enabled services (TESs) have the potential to increase access to mental healthcare. However, little research has focused on how TESs can be integrated into publicly funded service settings. As part of the state-wide Help@Hand project, Marin County conducted a pilot implementation of myStrength, a digital cognitive behavioral t...

Purpose of Review We evaluated the impact of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) for college students. We organized findings using the RE-AIM framework to include reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Recent Findings We conducted a systematic literature review of recent findings from 2019–2024. Our search identif...

Objective: Loneliness is a global health issue, but current loneliness interventions are not scalable enough to reach many who might benefit from them. Brief online interventions could greatly expand access to evidence-based loneliness interventions. Method: We conducted a preregistered three-armed trial (N = 908, ages 16–78) to compare three self-...

Within mental health services, persons in recovery from their own experiences of mental health challenges (peers) are increasingly being trained to provide peer support. This study describes individual and organizational outcomes related to engaging peers in a multisite demonstration project in California that sought to integrate them as cocreators...

This overview explores digital therapeutics (DTx) for mental health and their use in clinical practice for mental health service delivery. DTx provide a novel medium to receive mental health care that can meet the needs and interests of some patients. DTx, however, may have several barriers and opportunities to use. We examine the emergence of vari...

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem, and cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most widely used, evidence-based treatments. While several mobile apps for anxiety that integrate cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques exist, major challenges remain concerning uptake and engagement. Personalization is one strategy t...

Background Inadequate and inequitable access to quality behavioral health services and high costs within the mental health systems are long-standing problems. System-level (e.g., fee-for-service payment model, lack of a universal payor) and individual factors (e.g., lack of knowledge of existing resources) contribute to difficulties in accessing re...

Peer support specialists (“peers”) who have the lived experience of, and are in recovery from, mental health challenges are increasingly being integrated into mental health care as a reimbursable service across the US. This study describes the ways peers were integrated into Help@Hand, a multi-site innovation project that engaged peers throughout e...

Objective We aim to examine: (a) the extent to which patterns of adoption of counseling services and digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) shifted in recent years (2019–2021); (b) the impact of distress on adoption of mental health support; and (c) reasons related to adolescents’ low adoption of DMHIs when experiencing distress. Methods Data...

Do you ever feel sad, lonely, anxious, or stressed? Everyone experiences these feelings sometimes, but there are resources that can help. Some people think that technologies like social media and video games are leading to stress and anxiety, but technology can actually support people’s mental health. In fact, some technologies are made to help peo...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 global pandemic has contributed to increases in mental health issues such as depression and anxiety due to the increase of social isolation, uncertainty, and misinformation while at the same time making it harder to access mental health resources. In response to the pandemic, four counties/cities in California began offering...

Background Teletherapy apps have emerged as a promising alternative to traditional in-person therapy, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, as they help overcome a range of geographical and emotional barriers to accessing care. However, the rapid proliferation of teletherapy apps has occurred in an environment in which development has outpaced th...

BACKGROUND Teletherapy apps have emerged as a promising alternative to traditional in-person therapy, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, as they help overcome a range of geographical and emotional barriers to accessing care. However, the rapid proliferation of teletherapy apps has occurred in an environment in which development has outpaced th...

Background: Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) represent a promising solution to address the growing unmet mental health needs and increase access to care. Integrating DMHIs into clinical and community settings is challenging and complex. Frameworks that explore a wide range of factors, such as the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation...

Psychological well-being, characterized by feelings, cognitions, and strategies that are associated with positive functioning (including hedonic and eudaimonic well-being), has been linked with better physical health and greater longevity. Importantly, psychological well-being can be strengthened with interventions, providing a strategy for improvi...

BACKGROUND Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can help bridge the gap between the demand for mental health care and availability of treatment resources. The affordances of DMHIs have been proposed to overcome barriers to care such as accessibility, cost, and stigma. Despite these proposals, most evaluations of DMHI focus on clinical effect...

Background Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can help bridge the gap between the demand for mental health care and availability of treatment resources. The affordances of DMHIs have been proposed to overcome barriers to care such as accessibility, cost, and stigma. Despite these proposals, most evaluations of the DMHI focus on clinical ef...

BACKGROUND Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) represent a promising solution to address the growing unmet mental health needs and increase access to care. Integrating DMHIs into clinical and community settings is challenging and complex. Frameworks that explore a wide range of factors, such as the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation,...

Technologies are increasingly being used to provide mental health interventions — either as conduits to professionally delivered care or as technological interventions. Despite a rich history of the concept of therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy interventions, researchers have struggled to define and measure digital therapeutic alliance (DTA) in...

BACKGROUND Despite significant research done with youth experiencing homelessness (YEH), few studies have examined movement patterns and digital habits in this population. Examining these digital behaviors may provide useful data to design new intervention models for YEH. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to explore patterns of mobile phon...

Background: Despite significant research done on youth experiencing homelessness, few studies have examined movement patterns and digital habits in this population. Examining these digital behaviors may provide useful data to design new digital health intervention models for youth experiencing homelessness. Specifically, passive data collection (d...

BACKGROUND Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) have the potential to increase mental health support among isolated older adults. However, the older adult population can experience several barriers to accessing and using digital health resources, and may need extra support to experience its benefits. OBJECTIVE This paper aimed to understand...

Background Digital mental health interventions have the potential to increase mental health support among isolated older adults. However, the older adult population can experience several barriers to accessing and using digital health resources and may need extra support to experience its benefits. Objective This paper aimed to understand what old...

Background As the number of mental health apps has grown, increasing efforts have been focused on establishing quality tailored reviews. These reviews prioritize clinician and academic views rather than the views of those who use them, particularly those with lived experiences of mental health problems. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has increase...

Topic: Mobile Health (mHealth) stands as a potential means to better reach, assess, and intervene with teens with socially complex needs. These youth often face overlapping adversities including medical illness and a history of experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Clinicians are faced with navigating ethical decisions when developing...

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental health problem. The potential of apps to improve mental health has led to an increase in the number of anxiety apps available. Even though anxiety apps hold the potential to enhance mental health care for individuals, there is relatively little knowledge concerning users’ perspectives. This mixed...

BACKGROUND An increasing number of mental health apps (MHapps) are being developed that focus on youth. Additionally, youth report being high users of technologies generally and MHapps specifically. Little is known, however, about youth’s perspectives on MHapps and methods to better involve youth in the process of providing feedback on apps. OBJEC...

Background: An increasing number of mental health apps (MHapps) are being developed for youth. In addition, youth are high users of both technologies and MHapps. However, little is known about their perspectives on MHapps. MHapps might be particularly well suited to reach the youth underserved by traditional mental health resources, and incorporat...

Digital health behavior change interventions (DHBCIs) offer users accessible support, yet their promise to improve health behaviors at scale has not been met. One reason for this unmet potential may be a failure to offer users support that is tailored to their personal characteristics and goals. We apply the concept of antifragility to propose how...

Mental health concerns have been well studied among youth experiencing homelessness, yet few studies have explored factors that contribute to well-being in this population. The current cross-sectional study examined rates and correlates of well-being among youth experiencing homelessness. This is a descriptive, secondary analysis of the baseline da...

Online anxiety support communities offer a valuable and accessible source of informational and emotional support for people around the world. However, effectively responding to posters’ anxiety-related questions can be challenging for many users. We present our work in developing a web-based tool that draws from previous question-response interacti...

Mental health (MH) apps can be used as adjunctive tools in traditional face-to-face therapy to help implement components of evidence-based treatments. However, practitioners interested in using MH apps face a variety of challenges, including knowing which apps would be appropriate to use. Although some resources are available to help practitioners...

The impact of the positive psychology movement on digital health has been an underemphasized contribution on the field. Marty Seligman was an early figure in developing and evaluating interventions using the Internet and some of the earliest studies of positive psychological interventions used online recruitment and dissemination. We discuss some a...

Background: Mental health concerns are a significant issue among the deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) community, but community members can face several unique challenges to accessing appropriate resources. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the mental health needs of the D/HH community and how mental health apps may be able to su...

Digital mental health is often touted as a solution to issues of access to mental health care. However, there has been little research done to understand the accessibility of digital mental health, especially for those with disabilities. In this piece, we define accessibility as it relates to mental health apps, describe the current state of access...

Background User experience and engagement are critical elements of mental health apps’ abilities to support users. However, work examining the relationships among user experience, engagement, and popularity has been limited. Understanding how user experience relates to engagement with and popularity of mental health apps can demonstrate the relatio...

It has become commonplace to adapt the terminology used to reference mental illness in stigma measures to avoid further stigmatizing people who have experienced a mental health problem. However, to our knowledge, no study has examined the effect of modifying terminology in stigma measures on levels of stigma endorsement or on the relationship betwe...

With more than 10,000 mental health apps available, consumers and clinicians who want to adopt such tools can be overwhelmed by the multitude of options and lack of clear evaluative standards. Despite the increasing prevalence of curated lists, or app guides, challenges remain. Organizations providing mental health services to consumers have an opp...

BACKGROUND Supporting mental health and wellness is of increasing interest due to a growing recognition of the prevalence and burden of mental health issues. Mood is a central aspect of mental health, and several technologies, especially mobile apps, have helped people track and understand it. However, despite formative work on and dissemination of...

Background Supporting mental health and wellness is of increasing interest due to a growing recognition of the prevalence and burden of mental health issues. Mood is a central aspect of mental health, and several technologies, especially mobile apps, have helped people track and understand it. However, despite formative work on and dissemination of...

https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26994 Background: Accompanying the rising rates of reported mental distress during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a reported increase by the media in use of digital technologies to manage health generally, and mental health more specifically. Objective: The objective of the study was to sys...

https://www.jmir.org/2021/3/e24387 Background Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs), which deliver mental health support via technologies such as mobile apps, can increase access to mental health support, and many studies have demonstrated their effectiveness in improving symptoms. However, user engagement varies, with regard to a user’s upt...

BACKGROUND Mental health concerns are a significant issue among community college students, and they often have less access to resources than traditional university college students. Mobile apps have the potential to increase access to mental health care, but there has been little research investigating factors associated with mental health app use...

Background Mental health concerns are a significant issue among community college students, who often have less access to resources than traditional university college students. Mobile apps have the potential to increase access to mental health care, but there has been little research investigating factors associated with mental health app use with...

A major obstacle to mental health treatment for many Americans is accessibility: the United States faces a shortage of mental health providers, resulting in federally designated shortage areas. Although digital mental health treatments (DMHTs) are effective interventions for common mental disorders, they have not been widely adopted by the U.S. hea...

BACKGROUND Accompanying the rising rates of reported mental distress during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a reported increase in the use of digital technologies to manage health generally, and mental health more specifically. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to systematically examine whether there was a COVID-19 pandemic–related increase...

Mobile technologies have become increasingly pervasive and integral in our daily lives. A growing number of mobile applications are focused on health applications with many specifically focused on helping the prevention, treatment, and management of mental health issues. These apps are slowly being introduced into clinical settings, either being br...

U.S. health care systems are tasked with alleviating the burden of mental health, but are frequently underprepared and lack workforce and resource capacity to deliver services to all in need. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can increase access to evidence-based mental health care. However, DMHIs commonly do not fit into the day-to-day a...

Although group-level evidence supports the use of behavioral interventions to enhance cognitive and emotional well-being, different interventions may be more acceptable or effective for different people. N-of-1 trials are single-patient crossover trials designed to estimate treatment effectiveness in a single patient. We designed a mobile health (m...

Since the emergence of psychological interventions delivered via the Internet they have differed in numerous ways. The wealth of formats, methods, and technological solutions has led to increased availability and cost-effectiveness of clinical care, however, it has simultaneously generated a multitude of terms. With this paper, we first aim to esta...

While the HCI field increasingly examines how digital tools can support individuals in managing mental health conditions, it remains unclear how these tools can accommodate these conditions' temporal aspects. Based on weekly interviews with five individuals with depression, conducted over six weeks, this study identifies design opportunities and ch...

Background: The expanding amount of information available from our use of technologies has led researchers to explore how this information can aid in the detection of mental health issues. We expand on past work in this area by exploring how browsing histories might be able to predict perceived barriers to psychological treatment. Methods: We ob...

Purpose Positive affect has demonstrated unique benefits in the context of health-related stress and is emerging as an important target for psychosocial interventions. The primary objective of this meta-analysis was to determine whether psychosocial interventions increase positive affect in cancer survivors. Methods We coded 28 randomized controll...

The increasing ubiquity of health sensing technology holds promise to enable patients and health care providers to make more informed decisions based on continuously-captured data. The use of sensor-captured patient-generated data (sPGD) has been gaining greater prominence in the assessment of physical health, but we have little understanding of th...

Background: Although gamification continues to be a popular approach to increase engagement, motivation, and adherence to behavioral interventions, empirical studies have rarely focused on this topic. There is a need to empirically evaluate gamification models to increase the understanding of how to integrate gamification into interventions. Obje...

Purpose of review Digital mental health (DMH) interventions provide opportunities to alleviate mental health disparities among marginalized populations by overcoming traditional barriers to care and putting quality mental health services in the palm of one’s hand. While progress has been made towards realizing this goal, the potential for impactful...

Purpose of the review Digital health technologies offer tremendous potential in increasing access to services and augmenting existing services. Utilizing these technologies, however, poses new ethical considerations for clinicians, researchers, and healthcare organizations. These issues have been particularly apparent recently with several public i...

This trial examined whether a stepped care program for depression, which initiated treatment with internet cognitive behavioral therapy, including telephone and messaging support, and stepped up non-responders to telephone-administered cognitive behavioral therapy (tCBT), was noninferior, less costly to deliver, and as acceptable to patients compar...

Advances in technology are changing the ways cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can be delivered. Through mobile technologies, effective interventions exist that allow people to receive CBT without ever visiting a practitioner’s office. Additionally, mobile technologies are increasingly entering practitioners’ offices, combining technological and h...

Background: Youth experiencing housing instability have higher rates of mental health problems than their housed peers. Few studies have evaluated technological resources for homeless youth to determine how to effectively engage and reach them. Objective: The primary aims of this pilot study were to establish the feasibility (as measured by phon...

BACKGROUND Youth experiencing housing instability have higher rates of mental health problems than their housed peers. Few studies have evaluated technological resources for homeless youth to determine how to effectively engage and reach them. OBJECTIVE The primary aims of this pilot study were to establish the feasibility (as measured by phone re...

BACKGROUND Youth experiencing housing instability (e.g., homeless or marginally housed) have higher rates of mental health problems than their housed peers. Mobile technologies have often been touted for their potential to reduce health disparities and reach people who might not otherwise receive services. Few studies have developed and evaluated t...

BACKGROUND IntelliCare is a modular platform that includes 12 simple apps targeting specific psychological strategies for common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the effect of two methods of maintaining engagement with the IntelliCare Platform, coaching and receipt of weekly reco...

Background: IntelliCare is a modular platform that includes 12 simple apps targeting specific psychological strategies for common mental health problems. Objective: This study aimed to examine the effect of 2 methods of maintaining engagement with the IntelliCare platform, coaching, and receipt of weekly recommendations to try different apps on...

BACKGROUND A critical issue in understanding the benefits of online interventions is a lack of information on the sustainability of those benefits. Sustainability in studies is often determined using group-level analyses which might obscure our understanding of who actually sustains change. Person-centric methods might provide a deeper knowledge of...

Background: A critical issue in understanding the benefits of Web-based interventions is the lack of information on the sustainability of those benefits. Sustainability in studies is often determined using group-level analyses that might obscure our understanding of who actually sustains change. Person-centric methods might provide a deeper knowle...

Background Mobile apps have become popular resources for mental health support. Availability of information about developers' data security procedures for health apps, specifically those targeting mental health, has not been thoroughly investigated. If people are to use and trust these tools for their mental health, it is crucial we evaluate the tr...

BACKGROUND Background: The growing field of personal sensing harnesses sensor data collected from an individual’s smartphone to understand their behaviors and experiences. Such data could be a powerful tool within mental health care. However, it is important to note that the nature of this data differs from the information usually available to, or...

BACKGROUND Youth homelessness is a substantial issue and many youth experiencing homelessness have mental health issues as both a cause and consequence of homelessness. These youth face many barriers in seeking out traditional mental health services and as a result, few youth experiencing homelessness receive any form of mental health care. OBJECT...

Background: Youth homelessness is a substantial issue, and many youths experiencing homelessness have mental health issues as both a cause and consequence of homelessness. These youths face many barriers to receiving traditional mental health services, and as a result, only a few youths experiencing homelessness receive any form of mental health c...

UNSTRUCTURED Background. Behavioral intervention technologies (BITs) are websites, software, mobile applications, and sensors designed to help users address or change behaviors, cognitions, and emotional states. BITs have the potential to transform healthcare delivery, and early research has produced promising findings of efficacy. However, there a...