Examining the Feasibility of the Ask RoSE Mobile Mental Health Application

Students are one of the most at-risk groups for mental illness and suicide. Up to 40% of persons with serious mental illnesses do not receive care or stop intervention programs due to negative stigma. Focusing on students, only 30% of universities provide mental health counseling as part of universities' student health services. There is an urgent need to better understand and manage the mental health burden among students. The investigators will use a mental health-focused application that utilizes artificial intelligence to identify symptoms and provides targeted, tailored in-person therapy solutions for its users. Once a patient is matched with a therapist, the application provides solutions to supplement ongoing in-person psychotherapy. This includes journaling and daily assessments that provide curated content and feedback. The current feasibility study aims to recruit 45 Johns Hopkins graduate students with at least mild depressive and/or anxiety symptoms who will be consented and enrolled in a five-week study. There are two study arms: (1) the intervention arm and (2) a waitlist control arm. During the course of the study, the participants in the intervention arm will use the application daily. Participants will receive weekly in-person psychotherapy for a total of four sessions over four weeks. Licensed therapists will provide the in-person psychotherapy. The participants in the waitlist arm will serve as controls unless there is attrition from the intervention group at which time waitlist participants will be offered a spot in the intervention arm. The primary objectives of the study are (1) To assess the usability of the application and (2) To evaluate the short-term impact on mood and anxiety of using the application to augment in-person psychotherapy.