1.1 What are the different ways technology is used in crisis support and mental health care?

There are various uses for algorithmic and data-driven technology in the direct provision of mental health care. All are bound up in the contemporary communications eco-system of smartphones, linked devices, and the massive flows of data they enable. Functions within health systems include:

These categories are framed in terms of healthcare systems. There may be good reasons to advance other ways of categorising. For example, technologies that analyse data concerning mental health are appearing outside healthcare services; for example, in criminal justice agencies, online advertising firms, insurance companies, education settings, employer hiring practices, and so on.44 Case studies throughout the report will illustrate this expansion

Some technologies are well-established. Others are exploratory or experimental. Navigating these expanding technologies, including distinguishing which technologies are widely used, which are experimental, which ones are even technically feasible, and which ones are merely sensational and unrealistic, is not always easy. However, certain social, ethical, legal, political and economic themes tend to recur across the range of technology types and the conditions of their usage