Co-Designing a Family e-Hub: A Systemic, Relational, Digital Mental Health Resource

Access to family and systemic therapies remains limited. Digital mental health interventions offer potential to extend access; however, most are designed for individual users, presenting challenges when engaging multiple members of a family. This study used a participatory co-design approach to inform the development of the Family e-Hub, a systemic, self-guided digital resource grounded in family-specific design principles. Drawing on the perspectives of consumers with lived experience of family therapy and family therapists, the study aimed to co-design recommendations for Family e-Hub content and strategies for design and implementation that may enable engagement by families. Findings identified systemic techniques that may be translated to a self-paced environment, recommendations for maintaining individual and relational safety, and strategies to support accessibility for diverse families. The paper summarizes these recommendations and discusses future directions for the Family e-Hub and the broader development of systemic digital mental health interventions.