A CULTURE OF WELLNESS

the challenge:

How can we design mental health service models for an emerging market—people of diverse historically underserved identities—with high value proposition and high sustained utilization?

MY ROLE:

Human Factors Research Lead

Company Sponsor:

Howard University School of Social Work

Abstract:

This project was a blend of human factors research and customer experience (CX) research, with the intent to re-think mental healthcare services, and design a service model and associated products that meet the needs of historically underserved communities. The research that I conducted on this project served to stimulate empathy for the target market amongst the design team; served to help define the challenge with greater specificity relative to the target market; and propose a product design based on a better understanding of the target market.

extended project description

The end goal of the larger team was to design an integrated suite of web-based products, marketing campaigns, and workflows, that increase value proposition and utilization of mental health services within the target market.

People in the U.S. of diverse marginalized identities can be at risk for increased psychological distress due to actual or anticipated victimization, discrimination, and/or higher instances of environmental hardship. The challenge involved bridging the gap between mental healthcare service providers and an emerging market of potential new mental healthcare consumers of diverse marginalized identities.

The team

I served as the Human Factors Research Lead for this project. The team was comprised of various subject matter experts, service design professionals, and multiple specialized product design sub-teams. This was a multi-disciplinary and inter-departmental project sponsored by Howard University.

Methodology

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• Identify how people of diverse marginalized identities perceive and experience therapeutic services as well as barriers to entry.

• Understand common needs and collective motivations within the target market (including how they explain or express distress and resilience in the first place).

• Propose a framework for the provision of psychological services that addresses the particularities of belonging to diverse marginalized identities in the U.S. 

DATA-MINING AND META-ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY-DATA

Secondary data was collected and analyzed using a meta-analysis technique, which captured the statistical significance of common challenges relative to diverse historically underserved identities and the utilization of mental healthcare services. Variables with the strongest effect-size were later compared to data collected in focus-groups and interviews.

UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHIZING: MIXED-METHOD DATA COLLECTION

I designed a mixed-method research model that would allow the team to access critical phenomenological insights about the target market’s attitude toward mental healthcare service utilization, barriers to entry, common needs, and common motivations. Specific data collection methodologies primarily involved focus groups and follow-up one-to-one interviews. Qualitative inferences were compared to insights of data-mining study phases and other secondary data findings.

All names are pseudonyms, and consent was given to present de-identified content for the purposes of research.

SAMPLE USERS:

Analysis

Thematic trends among participants (validated through enter-rater reliability):

• Perceived mental health services as inaccessible and/or ineffective in dealing with the complex needs of challenges associated with their identity-based marginalization.

• Felt “othered” in U.S. society and desired solutions for potential discrimination and feelings of exclusion.

• Expressed limited knowledge about the usefulness of mental health services and how it could help.

• Feelings of distrust showed moderate frequency throughout interviews, but seemed worth mentioning due to the visceral nature with which those feels were expressed.

My recommendations to design team:

1. Engage user through specialized web content focused on wellness information that:

   • is multi-modal (video, academic reading, non-academic reading, etc.);

   • is culturally-competent;

   • is inclusive;

   • maintains a measurable capacity to articulate cultural competence and inclusivity through consumer attitude testing;

   • has the capacity to be updated regularly;

   • offers optional for user-to-user engagement; and

   • offers optional user-to-clinician engagement.

     * I noted during prototype pitch that the deployment of such a web service requires a separate, post-prototype testing and research phase.

2. Develop a service flow that helps de-stigmatize mental health services, focusing on “non-pathologizing” aspects of the services and addressing barriers to utilization (I recommended the “OMG” acronym as a double-entendre for the different processes to occur in the initial visit as well as consumer attitude after the visit).

3. Grow the community of those involved through maintenance services and instituting a customer referral program.