From Digital Technologies in Mental Health Services for Adolescents under the COVID-19 Pandemic. Xiao, Lechun & Wang, Ting (2023)

With everything teachers are asked to do today, monitoring and assessing the mental well-being of students simply isn't feasible to the level that today's adolescents need. Yet, increasingly school-aged children are struggling with anxiety, stress, loneliness and depression (Dienlin, 2020). Whether or not this is caused by the increased use of technology, and specifically social media, or not is unclear. But there certainly is a correlation (Banjanin, 2014). Regardless, technology is here to stay. And some research has shown promising returns in leveraging technology to help assess mental health.

Early detection of mental health struggles, like many diseases, is incredibly important (Lovejoy, 2018). This is one area where Artificial Intelligence could help. Wearable technology can monitor physical health indicators. Smartphone apps, such as "Companion," can detect changes in voice quality and variation, indicating potential changes in mental health. Even AI-analyses of Instagram photos has shown the ability to predict the risk of developing depression (Lee, 2021).

Yes, there come definite concerns about data collection and use when it comes to monitoring online and biological behaviors (Cope, 2016). But as we enter into an era of technological possibilities, it may be worth utilizing that which has led us down the road to better mental health services.

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Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2016). Big Data Comes to School: Implications for Learning, Assessment, and Research. AERA Open, 2(2), 2332858416641907. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858416641907

Dienlin, T., & Johannes, N. (2020). The impact of digital technology use on adolescent well-being. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 22(2), 135–142. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/tdienlin

Lee, E. E., Torous, J., De Choudhury, M., Depp, C. A., Graham, S. A., Kim, H.-C., Paulus, M. P., Krystal, J. H., & Jeste, D. V. (2021). Artificial Intelligence for Mental Health Care: Clinical Applications, Barriers, Facilitators, and Artificial Wisdom. Biological Psychiatry. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6(9), 856–864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.02.001

Lovejoy, C. A. (2019). Technology and mental health: The role of artificial intelligence. European Psychiatry, 55, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2018.08.004

Xiao, L., & Wang, T. (2022). Digital technologies in mental health services for adolescents Under the COVID-19 Pandemic. 467–474. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-040-4_71