The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented effects globally, including in the Asia-Pacific Region. The mental health effects of COVID-19 are expected to be profound, with the need for enhanced and targeted mental health care identified as urgent from the beginning of the outbreak. The mental health impacts of COVID-19 are still emerging and will become increasingly apparent as the longer-term impacts of the pandemic reverberate among populations. Vulnerable populations are at a higher risk of experiencing negative mental health effects without adequate access to care. 

 

Digital technology has previously been recognized as having great potential to address gaps in access to evidence-based mental health care and there have been calls to increase the use of digital mental health in the context of COVID-19. Though digital mental health may improve access, there are also risks that it might exacerbate inequities in access to care among high-risk populations who may face poorer digital resources or other barriers. Equity-oriented research is needed to identify needs and gaps to equitable digital health care delivery.

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The APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health, hosted in Canada, is a network of stakeholders representing researchers, healthcare providers, policy makers and people with lived experience (PWLE) from across the region. The Living Review hosted on this website is part of a project lead by the Digital Hub’s Disaster Resilience and Trauma Working Group  as a response to mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 The overall goal of the project is to conduct knowledge synthesis and mobilization to support planning and implementation of digital mental health initiatives with an emphasis on access by high-risk populations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the APEC region.