Preliminary findings from a scoping review on co-production of accessible digital mental health tools in collaboration with young people from marginalised backgrounds

Despite evidence that digital mental health supports can improve young people's access to mental health care, guidance on the most appropriate co-production processes for engaging youth in designing and evaluating these technologies is lacking. User input is critical in digital mental health solutions, particularly for marginalised young people who are often excluded from co-production processes.
The aim was to explore the extant literature on co-production processes with marginalised youth in digital mental health supports, ranging from mental health promotion to targeted interventions.
The search spanned 12 databases, including studies from 2021 onwards, focused on co-production with young people aged 16-25 in different stages of designing and assessing digital mental health technologies, especially those who are marginalised.
22 studies identified with young people mainly involved in initial design (n=8) or overall evaluation (n=5). 16 studies focused on mental health promotion and apps (n=8) and web-based (n=4) were the most popular digital means.