This paper presents an overview of the evolution and current status of digital mental health in Ireland. The focus is on user-facing, technology-enabled mental health services and applications. Because of the accelerated deployment of remote service delivery models during the COVID-19 crisis, the paper maps the evolutionary trajectory of digital mental health in Ireland according to three phases – before, during, and after the pandemic. It presents results of work on this topic by the authors within the framework of the eMEN Interreg project, including an online presentation at an international seminar [1] and an Irish policy analysis [2].Figure 1 presents a schematic view of three phases in the evolution of digital mental health in Ireland. The following sections briefly discuss the situation and developments in each phase.
In the period before the pandemic there was no overall policy or strategy on digital mental health in Ireland. A state-of-the-art report in 2018 presented a detailed overview of the field and identified a range of services and applications already utilised in Ireland [3]. In general, there was growing awareness of the potential and some utilisation in practice, but implementation was not systemic. However, the field was gradually evolving through a range of “top-down” and “bottom-up” processes, and these were beginning to come together and generate some momentum.
From the bottom-up perspective, some service providers were already utilising digital mental health approaches in a variety of ways, Irish-developed digital mental health products were beginning to become available, and innovation support initiatives such as the eMEN Interreg project were supporting developments through awareness-raising and proof of concept activities…