Called ClearlyMe, the new app from the Black Dog Institute is aimed at 12-17-year-olds and uses a self-directed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy program tailored to teens going through a tough time.

It’s already had significant results in lowering depressive symptoms, psychological distress and improving quality of life.

The app addresses the need for a digital, evidence-based treatment program that parents, GPs, counsellors and mental health professionals can recommend to teens who are experiencing moderate to severe depression, and contains effective therapeutic content including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, values labelling, emotion recognition, exposure therapy, goal setting, problem-solving and activity scheduling.

Black Dog Institute Associate Professor Bridianne O’Dea has been heavily involved in the research and putting together of the app since its inception three years ago.

The project originally evolved from a joint project between the Goodman Foundation and the Black Dog Institute, where they were helping GPs to better support adolescents with depression.

Statistically, one in three young people (38.8 per cent) will have experienced a mental health problem in the last 12 months, yet unfortunately that age demographic are often the most reluctant to seek help due to many barriers including stigma, cost, time, location and a desire to solve problems on their own.

For those who do seek professional help, wait times are long. Teens are currently waiting, on average, three months to access their first session of mental health treatment.

“What we found in that project was that there was really a gap in Australia for a self-directed, evidence-based intervention that young people could do specifically targeting depression – something that they could do at home, in the privacy of their own device, at school or out in the community,” O’Dea tells EducationHQ.

“We know early intervention is key to protecting mental health - that’s why we’ve co-designed this app with teens to break down barriers and put evidence-based care in the hands of those who need it the most,” the Black Dog Institute's Associate Professor Bridianne O’Dea says.

“…so we set about a research project, which really aimed to build a new intervention that would help young people essentially put supportive mental health care in their back pocket, that they could access at any time, or anywhere.”

In the first year of the project, the team embarked on a large co-design piece of work, where they worked with teenagers, parents, clinician and researchers, and conducted a series of co-design workshops based on what O’Dea calls ‘the gold standard treatment for depression in teenagers’: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

The causes of mental health problems, and in particular causes of depression, O’Dea says, have always been a complex area of both treatment and research, with the brain, our genes, and also our environment and our exposure to certain events, or experiences, pivotal.

“We have seen over time, different stresses that young people have been exposed to through globalisation and development.

"So we do see in our current day and age things like climate change, racial discrimination and inequality being very big issues that young people today are seriously concerned about, and that they report contributing to their mental health.”

One of the things, however, that O’Dea says is quite reassuring is that regardless of the causes, mental health treatments that are available, work.

“So Cognitive Behavioural Therapy works … Regardless of what the cause of the mental health problem may be, it is shown to be effective for young people experiencing depression because of a wide range of reasons.”

She says principals and teachers will be a vitally important means of getting the app to students who might benefit greatly from what it has to offer.

“So we know that teachers in particular are often a first port of call for young people with experiencing depressive symptoms. And this is because teachers often notice changes in behaviour and changes in mood that may indicate the experience of depression,” O’Dea says.

“And we know that many teachers are trusted sources of help for young people experiencing mental health problem, and clearly need to give schools and teachers and school counsellors a trusted, evidence-based resource that a young person can use at home in their own time that they know that is effective, but also very safe for a young person to use.”

O’Dea says despite increasing rates of psychological distress in young people, many are not able to access professional help due to cost, stigma and lack of service availability.

A key advantage of ClearlyMe is that it includes brief activities and numerous positive, in-the-moment coping strategies.

“So it can also be used by young people who may be experiencing a heightened period of distress due to something that may have happened at school that day, but also be used by young people who are experiencing prolonged phases of depression,” O’Dea says.

“So in that way, it offers schools a very effective and trusted resource.”

In addition, O’Dea and her team also found in their clinical trial that ClearlyMe was effective for improving school functioning.

“And we also know that the use of it by young people with depression, also improves their daily functioning and reduces the problems they’re experiencing at school – so it has direct outcomes that are relevant to the school environment.”

Black Dog Institute aims to support 50,000 teens facing mental health challenges through ClearlyMe over the next three years.

“We’ve devised, in partnership with young people, a really diverse marketing campaign that not only targets young people themselves, but also parents and carers and mental health professionals,” O’Dea says.

“We’ve launched a website where young people, their parents, and mentor professionals can visit and we’ve created a range of different handouts and flyers and collateral that can help support the use of the app in young people.

"And, of course, we are launching via social media, because we’ve found in a lot of our research that social media is a very effective way to reach young people in need of mental health care.”

O’Dea has spent much of her career working in youth mental health, and as far back as during her honours year was when she first looked at the potential of technology to help young people to close the treatment gaps.

The eldest of nine kids from a very small country town, she’s stayed in that field of expertise, largely because of the increasing rates of mental health problems in young people.

As well, she says, she really enjoys working with young people – “they keep me young”.

There’s also the not unsubstantial incentive of impacting heavily not just on what is happening now in young people’s lives, but the life-changing implications of that in the years to come.

“We just know that those first 25 years of life are really, really important for the next 25 years,” O’Dea says.

“So if we can do as much as we can to put children and young people on the right track, then we’re really setting them up for a happy and healthy, and a meaningful life.”