Purpose of reviewInterventions that facilitate help-seeking could help individuals to get care earlier on which could also help avert some mental health crises. Delivering interventions via a digital format could mitigate some key barriers to mental healthcare. We reviewed the literature for digital interventions which facilitate formal or informal help-seeking for mental health problems. We examined the impact of identified interventions on actual and intended help-seeking and attitudes towards help-seeking.Recent findingsWe identified 35 interventions. About half (51%) of studies showed an improvement in at least one help-seeking outcome with the greatest number showing an improvement in help-seeking intentions and the fewest studies showing an improvement in actual behaviour (29%). Findings suggest that interventions that promote active participation and personal involvement through sharing one's own narrative seem to be promising practices to facilitate help-seeking.SummaryOur findings suggest digital interventions can improve help-seeking for mental health problems among a range of populations. Given speciality mental health resources are scarce, further research needs to consider how these interventions could best target the most vulnerable groups to link them with mental healthcare and how these interventions might facilitate earlier intervention in a way that might reduce need for crisis care and support.

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Background The Every Mind Matters campaign and web resource launched in October 2019 by Public Health England aimed to equip adults to take action to improve their mental wellbeing by providing NHS-assured resources. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects on population level mental health literacy of Every Mind Matters over 30 months following campaign launch. Methods To observe changes in mental health literacy over time, we conducted regression analyses on a nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional dataset of nine survey waves from September 2019 to March 2022. We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis with data from October 2019 to March 2021 to examine the association between campaign awareness and the outcomes, treating each survey wave as separate trials. Findings There were small improvements in knowledge of management of stress, depression, and anxiety, mental health vigilance, sleep literacy and psychological wellbeing self-efficacy from September 2019 to March 2020. By March 2022 there was a deterioration in all mental health literacy outcomes compared to September 2019, except for sleep literacy which was unchanged from baseline. Campaign awareness was positively associated with symptom management of depression and anxiety, help seeking self-efficacy, stigma related to mental disorders and mental health vigilance. Interpretation There is little evidence that the campaign improved mental health literacy in the general population beyond March 2020. Those who were aware of the campaign may have benefitted from its resources. Funding Public Health England, National institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme

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