Mapping the Australian digital mental health network during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide-reaching impact on health and wellbeing around the globe, including increases in levels of mental distress, with more people accessing online mental health platforms since the pandemic was declared in 2020 (Liu et al., 2020; Titov et al., 2020). While some elements of this demand are fueled by the nature of the infectious disease pandemic, it is likely that increased use of online mental health platforms will persist post-pandemic (Pierce et al., 2020a; Wind et al., 2020). Moreover, the appeal of digital health solutions both within and beyond the context of the pandemic is precipitated by the longstanding promise of eHealth services to increase access to information and support and reduce barriers to traditional health care systems (Burns et al., 2010). In Australia, e-mental health services are central to the government’s plan for mental health service delivery and significant investments have been made in recent years (Marshall, Dunstan, & Bartik, 2020). As e-mental health proliferates, it is therefore critical to understand its composition and interconnections to guide next steps. The proposed paper quantitatively examined the network structure of mental health websites in Australia, to identify who is most central or authoritative, what types of websites are dominant within the space (e.g., gov, com, org), and what types of resources and digital content are offered to people experiencing crisis. The presented web ecology demonstrates, for example, that professional support services are not currently a prominent part of the sector’s online presence. It offers data that can be used to inform discussion about the future development of Australia's online mental health services in light of significant government investment, with a focus on service provision for marginalised and digitally excluded populations, such as culturally and linguistically diverse Australians.