As mental health concerns grow among Asian American communities, there is an urgent need for culturally-relevant support. While digital mental health treatments (DMHTs) offer new opportunities for interventions, they have largely been focused on non-minority populations in the U.S. (e.g., Caucasians, females, who are middle-aged). Through co-design sessions with Asian Mental Health Collective (AMHC), this study examines the unique mental health challenges faced by Asian Americans, intergenerational connections and elements of culturally-relevant mental health support. The co-design sessions resulted in two prototypes: A multifunctional community hub, to strengthen connections and resource access, and a storytelling app, for sharing and preserving cultural narratives. These prototypes drew from community co-design sessions to include elements of storytelling, community-centered approaches, and intergenerational engagement in addressing mental health concerns among Asian Americans. Leveraging the heterogeneous and similar cultural experiences among Asian Americans, this paper presents and discusses nuances and considerations for digital mental health technology (DMHT) designs for minority communities.

Mental wellbeing has become a crucial aspect of overall health and has drawn increased attention to mental health concerns. Research in human-computer interaction (HCI) has explored how technologies can support mental wellbeing and address mental health issues. However, current research predominantly reflects Western cultural perspectives, leaving gaps in our understanding of mental wellbeing, coping strategies, and digital tools for mental wellbeing support from Eastern cultural viewpoints. To start to address this disparity, we interviewed 19 Taiwanese emerging adults aged between 18 and 29—a demographic uniquely susceptible to mental health challenges due to the transitional nature of this life phase. We explored their conceptualization of mental wellbeing, the challenges they encounter, the strategies they employ for managing mental wellbeing, and the role of digital tools in this process. The results highlight the intricate influence of cultural, political, social, and individual factors, and their interactions on mental wellbeing.

When individuals experience stressful situations, it is common to disclose personal challenges and stress and seek social support on social media platforms. To better understand and improve social support in online environments, this study uses Reddit as a case study to examine how people navigate support-seeking online during stressful times. We conducted interviews with 16 individuals who used Reddit to share stress and seek support, exploring their motivations and outcomes of their posts and the challenges encountered. Findings reveal that users typically seek emotional, informational, network, and esteem support online and receive the desired support. Beyond immediate support receipt, online support interactions may have sustained positive impacts, such as mindset and social practice changes, the formation of offline friendships, and contributions to personal resilience in navigating stressful events. However, a mismatch between expectations and received responses, along with the inherent barriers of online communities, presents challenges. We discuss Reddit's affordances and limitations for stress disclosure and support exchange within the broader social media ecosystem, and then propose design implications to enhance online support exchange, such as fostering clearer communication, increasing support engagement, and community empathy.

The number of older adults who are homebound with depressive symptoms is increasing. Due to their homebound status, they have limited access to trained mental healthcare support, which leaves this support often to untrained family caregivers. To increase access, a growing interest is placed on using technology-mediated solutions, such as voice-assisted intelligent personal assistants (VIPAs), to deliver mental health services to older adults. To better understand how older adults and family caregivers intend to interact with a VIPA for mental health interventions, we conducted a participatory design study during which 6 older adults and 7 caregivers designed VIPA-human dialogues for various scenarios. Using conversation style preferences as a starting point, we present aspects of human-likeness older adults and family caregivers perceived as helpful or uncanny, specifically in the context of the delivery of mental health interventions, which helps inform potential roles VIPAs can play in mental healthcare for older adults.

Software engineers exhibit higher burnout and suicide rates compared to many other information workers. Consequently, mental wellbeing is a growing concern to technology organizations. To better understand the challenges of supporting mental wellbeing in the context of the work of software engineering, we conducted 14 interviews with software engineers. We examine the different aspects of their lived experiences with mental wellbeing at work, their strategies for managing mental wellbeing, the challenges they face in using these strategies, and recommendations they have for mental wellbeing technologies. We contribute to the HCI literature by discussing how mental wellbeing should be considered within the context of work across individual, team, and organization levels, and highlight the need for integrating mental wellbeing into the technologies employees use at work.

Collaborative Care Programs (CCPs) integrate mental health services into primary care settings to help patients access much needed treatment. Technologies could increase the effectiveness of CCPs, but we know little about what collaboration challenges technologies must address in this complex clinical setting. To investigate these challenges and technology opportunities, we conducted interviews and contextual inquiries with 30 patients and providers in an obstetric CCP. Using the Parallel Journeys Framework as a lens, we uncover new collaboration challenges (e.g., weighing risks and benefits of treatment, conflicting opinions and ambiguous responsibilities) at the intersection of patients' obstetric and psychosocial care journeys. We discuss new CSCW implications and technology opportunities, such as the importance of addressing support gaps in cyclical experiences, and the need to resolve provider conflicts to refocus on patient needs. These contributions inform how technologies can support patient engagement and collaboration with providers to access and receive treatment, as well as improve health outcomes.