Design Continuum

• Thought Leadership

• 01. Social Impact Report
• 02. Elephant Design Parternship
• 03. Creative Capitalism

• Case Studies

• 01. Rockefeller Foundation
• 02. Mood & Anxiety Disorders Institute
• 03. Interdesign Africa
• 04. LabNow
• 05. IDDS
• 06. One Laptop per Child

How does an organization with a mission of educating the public about complex mental health issues—from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder—create the most effective online experience to get information into the hands of the people who need it the most?

Navigating the mental health care system is not a simple process. The Mood and Anxiety Disorder Institute (MADI) Resource Center at Massachusetts General Hospital exists to make that process easier. MADI translates the latest research advances in psychiatry into practical information to help people get the most accurate diagnosis and best possible treatment results. With a grant to create a pilot website to improve their online offering, MADI Resource Center contacted Continuum. The challenge: MADI was sitting on a wealth of useful research but needed help in organizing the information in clear and compelling ways. They were also looking for more effective ways to reach and connect with people who needed their information the most.

Continuum guided MADI’s Advisory Board through a 2-part workshop meant to identify the best way to connect with patients through their website. The most fundamental first step was to map the patient (and patient’s family’s) journey along the road to treatment.

The team broadened the board’s understanding of how to think about this experience from the patient’s point of view. They identified the major stages of seeking and experiencing mental health care including: awareness, learning, the struggle, the search for help, diagnosis, treatment, and maintenance care. A significant mind-flip: the mental health care journey is rarely a straight and simple march from awareness to treatment. In fact, moving through this system is more of a “loop” process whereby each time a new treatment is tried, the patient circles back to the learning stage, repeating in various forms the struggle, the search for help, and perhaps even a diagnosis. This insight drove the team to organize information on the website based on particular stages along the mental health care journey—information needed to help patients progress—rather than on a specific disorder.

To facilitate this stage-driven journey, the team focused on the importance of “expectation management.” From a tactical sense, this meant foregoing the typical approach of uploading complete video transcripts of physician talks and lectures. Cumbersome and unedited, viewers would often stop watching these videos after a few minutes. Continuum suggested the creation of “One Minute Messages,” content delivered in the form of short videos addressing common patient questions (“How to Make the Most of Your 15 Minute Appointment”) as well as the translation of research into practical information (“How Do you Know if You’re Getting Better?”). Providing these kinds of answers would help to manage patients’ expectations around mental health care treatment. It would also give them a powerful tool: resources to share with family members and friends to help them all understand their diagnosis and treatment more fully.

As a result of this work, the MADI Resource Center redesigned their website, www.moodandanxiety.org, to meet the team’s stated goal of being a seamless integration of patient-centered and expert-guided information to empower patients on their own journey to health.