Research project – technology and mental wellbeing

Research project – technology and mental wellbeing

by | Jul 12, 2015 | PhD | 2 comments

I recently met Aislinn Bergin, a PhD student, at the King’s Fund Digital Congress and it was great to find out about her research. As I enter the final stages of writing up my thesis, it’s nice to be able to help out someone in the early stages of their PhD journey. Here is a bit more from Aislinn about her research: I have to admit that I wish I had thought of the words ‘people-driven’ when I first started my research. Instead I chose the much more difficult to explain concept of ‘autonomous’ – it’s also one of those terribly academic words that no one really knows the meaning of. Oh to go back in time! In fact the title of my research, “a constructive grounded theory study of the experiences of autonomous users of digital mental health” is quite a mouthful, so much so that I had to set up a website just to explain it! People-driven really does explain my research quite well though. I’m inviting people to tell me about their experiences of digital mental health, of using technology for their mental wellbeing. After spending the past 3 or 4 years digging deep into the world of digital mental health, looking at everything from computerised CBT to gaming apps for anxiety, I realised that there was something really significant going on. On the one hand you had all this research looking at the efficacy and acceptability of various digital tools and activities and on the other you had people using them. Lots of new stuff was being created, tested and rolled out with less than perfect results (few...

Social media connections – can you help me with my research?

by | May 23, 2012 | PhD | 0 comments

Whilst wading my way through my literature review, I’m also starting to think about the research I will be undertaking next year, and am keen to find a social media site to focus on for my study. I am interested in if/how social media affords the opportunity to shape, influence, deconstruct and do all sorts of interesting and disruptive things which challenge the received comfy and paternalistic order of things, that was once (and still largely is) perpetuated by large institutions such as the NHS. The new NHS Confederation briefing alive and clicking gives a glimpse into the potential (and threat in the eyes of some) of social media to niggle away at this relatively snug world. In my discussions, opinions vary from dismissal through to downright horror, with the odd bit of curiosity and occasional enthusiasm in the middle. I think it still holds ‘hobby’ status for most people i.e. not to be taken that seriously… but that is beginning to change. In my research I really want to get to the heart of what is happening in terms of relationships and connections (or not) between people experiencing mental health difficulties, mental health providers and mental health professionals online. I’m interested in themes of power, Iabelling, stigma and identity. The sorts of questions I’m interested in are: If/how are social media influencing and shaping relationships? What does it mean for those involved? To what extent do social media enable people to throw things out of kilter and re-order the shape of things? What disruptive forces are at work (for example, humour)? Is it just more of the same in...