What's In Your Kit? Mental Health Technology Kits for Depression Self-Management

This paper characterizes the mental health technology "kits" of individuals managing depression: the specific technologies on their digital devices and physical items in their environments that people turn to as part of their mental health management. We interviewed 28 individuals living across the United States who use bundles of connected tools for both individual and collaborative mental health activities. We contribute to the HCI community by conceptualizing these tool assemblages that people managing depression have constructed over time. We detail categories of tools, describe kit characteristics (intentional, adaptable, available), and present participant ideas for future mental health support technologies. We then discuss what a mental health technology kit perspective means for researchers and designers and describe design principles (building within current toolkits; creating new tools from current self-management strategies; and identifying gaps in people's current kits) to support depression self-management across an evolving set of tools.