Using an Online Psychotherapy Program and AI-assisted Interventions for Postsecondary Student Mental Health

The prevalence of mental health challenges and disorders in post-secondary students, demands accessible and efficacious care. Online psychotherapy and psychoeducation programs have shown significant effectiveness in mitigating the risk and clinical symptoms of various mental health disorders. Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an accessible, effective, and scalable tool supporting the delivery of healthcare. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to develop an AI-driven online mental health care hub in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox \& Addington region for post-secondary students. . This hub will deliver equitable, efficacious, and cost-effective online psychoeducation and psychotherapy in the form of online diagnosis-specific cognitive behavioural therapy (e-CBT). The hub\'s virtual design aims to adequately address existing gaps in the mental healthcare of these individuals and alleviate the burden placed on mental health services in Canada. Using a rigorous implementation framework, the development of this hub is designed as a multiphase study with three phases. (1) Pre-adoption phase: will assess post-secondary students\' current mental health landscape through surveys and focus groups. This information will be used in the development of our online psychoeducation and diagnosis-specific e-CBT programs. (2) Delivery phase: will determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the online psychoeducation and diagnosis-specific e-CBT programs by comparing them to treatment as usual. (3) Post-adoption phase: the collected data from these programs will be analyzed and shared with key stakeholders to guide continuous program scaling and improvement.