Digital Mental Health Care for Older Adults and Their Caregivers

Good mental health is critical for the healthy aging of older adults and also for their caregivers. However, it is always a challenge to better support and promote the mental health of older adults (especially those with dementia or with comorbidities) and their caregivers. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increased interest and use of digital technology worldwide, including in the field of mental health care. But technology use also revealed and reinforced the inequalities between older and young adults; in the sense that older adults tend to possess lower digital literacy and therefore less willing to dive into the digital world.

There are two possible solutions, including 1) to improve the digital literacy of older adults and their caregivers so that they can benefit more from digital mental health services, or 2) to shape and design digital mental health services in a way that can better serve them digitally even though their digital literacy level is lower. Besides digital literacy, another area we are interested in is their experience of using digital mental health services, and the possible barriers and facilitators. Lastly, it is also of our interest to look at novel digital health interventions for the mental health promotion of older adults and their caregivers, and the evaluation of such interventions.

Of interest are articles addressing the following topics:
• Digital literacy among older adults and/or their caregivers;
• Attitudes towards digital mental health care among older adults and/or their caregivers;
• Barriers and facilitators of using digital mental health among older adults and/or their caregivers;
• The experiences of using digital mental health services among older adults and/or their caregivers;
• The role/experiences of caregivers in facilitating digital mental health care among older adults;
• Interventions to improve digital literacy among older adults and/or their caregivers;
• Novel digital mental health interventions for older adults and/or their caregivers;
• Feasibility and effectiveness of digital mental health intervention for older adults and/or their caregivers.





We welcome both qualitative and quantitative original research as well as systematic reviews. Papers on cultural differences of the above topics are also welcome.

Keywords: Digital mental health care; older adults; informal caregivers; intervention; digital literacy; attitudes; experiences

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.