Developing a Smart Ecologies Approach to MHapp Research and Evaluation

In this chapter, we focus on a conceptually informed ecological approach to MHapp research and evaluation that addresses the role of automationautomation. MHapps are part of an increasing integration of smart technologiessmart technologies in everyday life, which work through generating and capturing huge amounts of individual- and population-level data. The automation of MHapps means that support is not fixed to the specific locations of in-person support. Analytic approaches are needed that can capture the use of MHapps in real time in the everyday ecologiesecologies of individual users’ lives. Drawing on the concept of the smartness mandate (Halpern & Mitchell, 2022) and the notion of individuation (Simondon & Adkins, 2020), we argue for a smart ecologies approach that captures the ways that the impacts of MHapps on individuals’ mental health operate through multi-layered temporal and spatial dimensions, rather than the manifestation of factors (e.g. biological, psychological, social) that interact at the level of individual bodiesbodies to cause mental ill-health. We discuss the value of evaluation methods designed to gather ‘real-world/real-time’ data (e.g Ecological Momentary AssessmentEcological Momentary Assessment) and develop these through a smart ecologies approach conceptually informed by the notion of individuation.