Category: Schizophrenia / Psychotic Disorders
Benjamin Buck, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Assistant Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Dror Ben-Zeev, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Justin Tauscher, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Sarah Kopelovich, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Benjamin Buck, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Assistant Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Anna Larsen, M.P.H., Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
There are multiple evidence-based psychosocial interventions for individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSDs), but few receive them. There are two psychiatrists and three psychologists for every 10,000 people in the United States (Andrilla et al., 2018), and even among these providers, surprisingly few have specialized training in evidence-based psychosocial interventions for this population (by one recent estimate in Kopelovich et al., 2022, fewer than 1%). These service gaps are even larger in low-resource settings globally, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is a pressing need for innovations that address the population needs of individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders at scale. Digital health interventions are well-suited to increase system capacity and reach of evidence-based interventions for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Almost ten years ago, the FOCUS mHealth intervention for schizophrenia demonstrated that digital health tools for SSDs are feasible, and since, it has demonstrated that it provides clinical benefits equal to established treatments (Ben-Zeev et al., 2018), engages individuals at greatest risk of dropout (Buck et al., 2019), and reduces service costs (Ben-Zeev et al., 2021). FOCUS is one example of the promise of digital solutions to address service gaps. Today, new digital interventions and delivery strategies are required to address persisting challenges to the reach of evidence-based interventions for SSDs. This symposium presents the rationale, development and testing of four deployments of digital health interventions to increase access to evidence-based interventions for SSDs, organized by the expansion of reach exemplified by each settings, including a (1) a statewide implementation of mHealth for schizophrenia, (2) a digital CBT training and fidelity monitoring tool for behavioral health practitioners and practitioners-in-training, (3) remotely delivered self-guided digital support for early psychosis caregivers, and (4) mHealth supporting traditional and faith healers in West Africa.