Technology has a bad reputation when it comes to our mental health and wellbeing, whether it’s doom scrolling, the addictive nature of social media, online bullying, fake news or simply always being available.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve spent an ever-increasing amount of time looking at screens, which has led to us feeling less connected and more isolated. Overdependence on smartphones in particular is strongly linked to mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

Technology is rarely the root of our mental health problems, but it can exacerbate underlying mental health issues, and excessive usage can lead to habits that have a detrimental effect on our physical health, including poor sleep patterns and bad posture.

A digital detox can be beneficial, but permanently cutting out technology isn’t the answer – nor is it often feasible when we depend on it so heavily.

Technology has huge potential to help support our mental health and wellbeing. We can use artificial intelligence (AI) and data to personalise and target support, and we can also raise awareness about people’s wellbeing so they can better manage their self-care using SMART (self-monitoring, analysis, reporting technology).

Raising Awareness

Over the past year, we’ve become acutely aware of just how important it is to prioritise our physical and mental health and wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is increasingly important in the workplace as our work lives and personal lives have blurred.

And while the lack of commuting led us to believe that we’d have more time on our hands, in reality, we work longer hours and are under more pressure. Even prior to the pandemic, we were already experiencing a global mental health crisis.

According to the World Health Organisation, one billion people globally were living with a mental health disorder, and depression is set to become the leading cause of disease burden by 2030.

In 2020, over a quarter of people in the UK had to wait more than three months for mental health support, and almost half of UK adults say they feel lonelier than before the pandemic.

Despite the funding challenges these essential services face, there’s huge potential economic benefit for our society. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport in 2020 estimated a negative societal financial impact of at least £9,976 per person experiencing severe loneliness per year.

Therefore, technology may be a good substitute – or addition – to our overburdened mental health services, many of which closed or ran reduced services over the last year.

Testing Resilience

Since the onset of the pandemic, we’ve dealt with huge changes to our routines and the things we find familiar, leading to sleep problems, loneliness, burnout, anxiety and brain fog.

We’ve also managed the added strain of bereavement, ill-health and financial insecurity. Our resilience has been tested as we deal with collective exhaustion as a society.

There’s a growing trend for people to manage these feelings and symptoms through meditation and mindfulness practices. Mental health mobile phone apps and digital wellbeing programmes downloads have skyrocketed.

In particular, meditation solutions are some of the most popular. In April 2020, Calm reported record downloads at 3.9 million while Headspace, another market leader, followed behind with 1.5 million downloads in the same month.

One of the advantages of using technology to support mental wellbeing is privacy. While charities do a lot of work to dismantle the stigma of depression, anxiety and loneliness, it’s still a conversation that many might shy away from, particularly at work.

Technology has made getting support potentially more accessible and accelerated the adoption of remote services such as video consultations or asynchronous chat conversations.

The convenience of having access to mental health services, such as e-therapy, wherever you are, whatever time, cannot be understated. Users can sidestep waiting times, and it’s more reasonably priced than more traditional therapy.

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There are some amazing charitable and social enterprises developing tech solutions, including Action for Happiness, which is committed to creating a more caring society, and Sidekick, which creates tools, organises information and encourages positive conversations about mental health.

Similarly, in the past year, tech developers have prioritised key workers in their digital offerings. Edinburgh-based startup Trickle developed How was your day? in partnership with Aberdeen University while Northumbria University developed My Wellbeing Diary for the NHS.

Many apps are now augmenting their capability through wearable devices and voice assistant interactions, which enriches sleep quality, stress levels, fitness, diet and hydration data and can provide tailored holistic support. Moodbeam is a great example of a wearable solution that has also been adopted by frontline NHS workers.

Another growing area is technologies which connect communities and promote human interaction, often centring around a shared interest or passion (such as Meetup, Frindow and Nextdoor) and allowing people to create meaningful relationships.

Volunteer-matching services like Do It and Time Bank have also seen a significant increase in interest as people are keen to help in their local communities. Some services like GoodGym, for example, also combine exercise opportunities.

Using technology to support mental wellbeing

The single biggest advantage of using technology to support mental wellbeing is that users can find out what works for them, with little cost or inconvenience, and set their own wellbeing programmes.

There’s a large range of choice of online guided activities, including exercise, so we don’t need to rely on expensive gym memberships. The trend for in-home support and personal training is set to grow and improve as new technologies are released such as the new Amazon Alexa Echo Show 10, which has a screen which tracks sound and movement to tailor experiences.

Imagine a yoga class where you can get real-time, individualised feedback on your technique to make sure that you are performing the moves as effectively and safely as possible?

For people who miss the office buzz, there are lots of self-management apps which set reminders for workers to move from their desk every hour, stretch or take a walk as well as care for their eyes.

Apps also monitor how you feel every day, which can help you become more attuned to your key wellbeing indicators. They can signpost you to other areas of support including mental health services if needed – and also give tips and advice.

There are numerous digital mental health employee assistance programmes available which help tailor support for individuals and improve uptake of the support on offer. Employers now realise that not only do they have a duty of care, but prioritising wellbeing has real benefits to the organisation.

Three-in-five SMEs state that investing in health and wellbeing initiatives had a ‘high’ impact on boosting employee productivity. Many health insurance providers now include tech solutions and online services such as Babylon, a digital health company that uses AI to make healthcare more accessible, and Vitality, a health, life insurance and investment business.

We need to embrace new solutions and anticipate our needs as a society. There are growing concerns that the global mental health crisis may cause a more significant impact on our society than the Covid-19 pandemic.

As we live in an ageing society in the UK, we need to have a range of solutions that can support both young and old in our society. Digital technologies will revolutionise mental healthcare, but it will only support our mental wellbeing if it’s person-centred and we are cognizant of people’s accessibility requirements so that no one is excluded.

Similarly, there’s very strong evidence from The Good Things Foundation that tackling digital inequalities would lead to better health outcomes. As we look to the future, access to mental health support needs to be prioritised.

Smart AI-driven technology can help to meet demand, but it needs to be implemented in a way that promotes equity of access to prevent the digital divide from widening.