Co‐Designing a Family e‐Hub: A Systemic, Relational, Digital Mental Health Resource
ABSTRACT Access to family and systemic therapies remains limited. Digital mental health interventions offer potential to extend access; however, most are designed for individual users, presenting challenges when engaging multiple members of a family. This study used a participatory co‐design approach to inform the development of the Family e‐Hub, a systemic, self‐guided digital resource grounded in family‐specific design principles. Drawing on the perspectives of consumers with lived experience of family therapy and family therapists, the study aimed to co‐design recommendations for Family e‐Hub content and strategies for design and implementation that may enable engagement by families. Findings identified systemic techniques that may be translated to a self‐paced environment, recommendations for maintaining individual and relational safety, and strategies to support accessibility for diverse families. The paper summarizes these recommendations and discusses future directions for the Family e‐Hub and the broader development of systemic digital mental health interventions.
Authors
- Jennifer E. McIntosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4709-5003)
- James Boyd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8925-8811)
- Zoe C. G. Cloud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0257-9944)
- Ellen T. Welsh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7509-7092)
Institutions
- La Trobe University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Marital and Family Therapy
- Published
- 2026-09-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.70174
- Primary Topic
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00