What matters in digital health technology adoption for mental healthcare? - A multistakeholder qualitative study

Digital health technologies hold great promises for supporting people with mental health challenges and promoting their well-being. However, various challenges persist in the adoption of technologies as care modalities in mental healthcare. The study aims to explore what matters in adopting technology in mental healthcare from a multistakeholders' perspective.

We conducted a qualitative interview study with 26 mental health stakeholders recruited from government authorities, regional health authorities/hospitals, municipalities, universities/research institutions, health industries/entrepreneurs/clusters, and user organizations. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted via Microsoft Teams between August and October 2024. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed into text, and analyzed using abductive thematic analysis.

Four main themes emerged from the analysis. Stakeholders identified flexible, personal adaptive technology supported by peer support and co-creation, coupled with continuous and tailored human follow-ups, as core values for people receiving mental healthcare. For successful adoption, stakeholders informed that such technology must be evidence-informed and demonstrate clear and scalable service delivery benefits in mental healthcare, while requiring visionary leadership and dedicated staff resources for organizational adoption. They further highlighted that nationwide access depends on compatible digital health systems and on clear policies and guidelines that support scaling for the benefit both service users and staff.

Stakeholders considered technology adoption in mental healthcare as jointly shaped by human-centered values and broader contextual factors. They interpreted that effective strategies need to foster human connection while enabling broader access and knowledge transfer to ensure safe and scalable technology use.