Project 2: Optimizing Engagement and Outcomes in STAND Digital Therapy

Summary

The goal is to optimize peer coaching in order to optimize engagement and outcomes in digital therapy. The unmet mental health needs of community college students are staggering and a growing body of research demonstrates that therapy provided digitally with the assistance of trained community members without advanced degrees in mental health is an effective and scalable way to address these needs. Despite being effective for improving symptoms and functioning in those who engage in it, uptake and engagement in digital therapy is generally quite low. Recent research suggests that this is especially true of Latinx individuals, who tend to have unique and significant unmet mental health needs. To address these issues, Project 2 will examine treatment engagement, treatment satisfaction, symptoms and functioning outcomes among Latinx students at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) receiving digital therapy with peer coaching in the STAND program.

Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Demographic Matching

At randomization, students will be randomized to a Latinx or non-Latinx coach and will be informed whether or not their coach identifies as Latinx. Although we are not recruiting coaches or matching coaches with participants based on gender, gender identity or lived experience with mental health problems, we will collect these data from coaches in order to do conduct secondary exploratory analyses examining these variables as predictors or moderators of outcome.

BEHAVIORAL

Supervision Intensity

Coaches will be assigned to either standard supervision or reduced supervision, with equal distribution across Latinx vs non-Latinx. Coaches assigned to standard supervision will receive weekly supervision by a licensed provider consistent with the procedures outlined in the Data and Safety Monitoring Plan for the Signature Project. Coaches assigned to reduced supervision will attend weekly group supervision, but their session recordings or live sessions will not be reviewed by licensed supervisors or advanced peers and they will not receive personalized feedback about how they are performing in their sessions. Students will not be informed which supervision condition they have been assigned to in order to maintain high treatment expectancies. Of note, this design prohibits the coach and supervisors from being blind to participant condition.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Amy Sewart, Ph.D. · University of California, Los Angeles

• Kate Taylor, Ph.D. · University of California, Los Angeles

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

40 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-04-26

Primary Completion

2026-04-30

Completion

2026-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations