Design of a Game-Based Training Environment to Enhance Mental Healthcare Professionals’ Skills in Using eMental Health: a User Requirements Analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND A major factor hampering the adoption of technology in mental healthcare appears to be a lack of knowledge and skills. Serious gaming offers a potentially effective strategy to enhance the needed skills through experiencing and learning-by-doing in a playful way. Serious gaming solutions are however not widely available in mental healthcare. The development of a game-based training environment in mental healthcare was therefore pursued in a design project. The first step in such a design project is to identify the user requirements that should be met. OBJECTIVE This research aims to deliver the user requirements that inform the design of a game-based training environment for mental healthcare professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills regarding the use of eMental Health. METHODS We used an exploratory multiple methods design consisting of a an online questionnaire, co-design sessions, and interviews. To ensure a good representation of the target user group for each data collection method, professionals from various disciplines within mental healthcare were included in the research. The multiple methods design facilitates a broad view of user needs and in-depth knowledge of specific design requirements. We described the protocol for this research project in a protocol paper, which was published in JMIR Research Protocols in February 2021. RESULTS The user requirement analysis revealed three types of users for the envisioned game-based training environment: mental healthcare professionals that want to learn about the basic possibilities of eMental Health, mental healthcare professionals that want to develop their eMental Health skills to a next level, and mental healthcare professionals that want to learn and experiment with new technologies. This reflects the diversity of needs that were identified, as well as the need to develop a diversity of suitable scenarios in the environment. The user requirements analysis also show that the focus of a training environment should be on increasing knowledge about the possibilities of eMental Health in a broader sense, experiencing the benefits in particular situations and building confidence to use eMental Health in a therapeutic setting. This requires a careful consideration of which game characteristics are suitable. CONCLUSIONS To improve mental healthcare professionals’ skills in eMental Health requires an environment that is user driven and flexible, and at the same time incorporates the contextual factors that are relevant for its implementation in practice. This user requirements analysis contributes to the understanding of the issues that should be taken into account in the development of a game-based training environment by showing that ‘the’ mental healthcare professional does not exist. The various client populations, services and situations demand a variety of options for training. CLINICALTRIAL N/A.