Fulfilling the promise of mental health technology to reduce public health disparities: Review and research agenda

Despite significant promise, the full impact of mental health technologies has yet to be realized. With overall mental health service utilization still below 50%, those with a disorder, racial/ethnic minority, low SES, and rural populations receive services at even lower rates. Mental health technologies have been designed and proposed to address the barriers exacerbating these disparities and low utilization. However, research on these tools, which to date has appropriately prioritized effectiveness, requires significant shifts to test the ways these tools may reduce disparities. This article reviews these tools and outlines a potential framework for research that can guide the translation of these technologies into data-driven dissemination and implementation strategies.