Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020, EPSRC

Team: Reem Talhouk (Northumbria University), Franziska Tachtler, Toni Michel, Geraldine Fitzpatrick (Tu Wien), Petr Slovak (King’s College London)

Timeframe: 2019-2020

Unaccompanied Migrant Youth are at higher mental health risk and have been found to experience poor sleep hygiene and stress. In Austria Unaccompanied migrant youth  struggle in accessing appropriate mental health resources in spite of their high need for mental health support. Through co-design workshops, and using the lens of the social-ecological model of resilience, we explored the social-ecological factors that support or hinder the use of mental health apps as resources by this populations. Through the research we identified factors within their every day living, such as accommodation, and social contexts that need to be accounted for in order to design applications as usefull and effective resources. Using the social-ecological model of resilience we also highlight how national policies that dictate unaccompanied migrant youths’ lives hinder them from applying the mental health interventions mediated through mobile applications.