control version of the same app that focused primarily on mood monitoring.
Participants assigned to receive HeadGear completed a daily 5-10 minute ‘challenge’ with skill-based tasks designed to boost mental fitness through mindfulness, behavioural activation therapies and coping strategies. They also undertook screening to calculate their risk of developing future mental illness, and were then followed up at 5-weeks, 3-months and 12-months after the 30-day intervention period.
Workers who used HeadGear had fewer depressive symptoms and were less likely to develop mental health issues at the 3-month follow-up, compared to those receiving the control app, with this benefit continuing beyond the 12-month follow-up mark. Workplace performance also improved, as did scores for resilience and wellbeing.
Researchers are now testing modified versions of the HeadGear app for apprentices, non-male-dominated workforces and junior doctors. To register an expression of interest or to find out more about joining these studies in 2020, contact [email protected].
“This is the first time researchers have ever been able to achieve reductions in depression incidence using an app alone,” said lead author Dr Mark Deady, from the Workplace Mental Health Research Program at the Black Dog Institute.
“Workplaces can be an ideal setting to intervene and improve worker’s mental health, but until now this kind of evidence-based training has been inaccessible to many organisations and individuals, as face-to-face programs tend to be more costly and only delivered in metropolitan areas.
“Our findings point to the potential for apps like HeadGear to reach people in high-risk industries at scale with easily-implementable strategies to improve their workplace mental health.”
During a randomised controlled trial (RCT), researchers compared HeadGear with a less intensive
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