NIMHANS Paper Urges Clear Policies for Using Digital Tools in Campus Mental Health

It emphasizes that digital systems should include algorithm-driven nudges to encourage timely help-seeking, clear communication about their capabilities and limits, crisis-support pathways, and sound integration with offline services.

NIMHANS researchers have urged higher education institutions to establish stronger governance frameworks and transparent policies as they incorporate digital tools into campus mental-health systems.

Their new publication has underscored that India’s universities and colleges are yet to harness technology in a systematic, evidence-informed manner despite its growing global use in student well-being.

This growth is driven by increased access to smartphones, changing student preferences, and growth in public health informatics. However, the higher education ecosystem in India remains fragmented in adopting technology-enabled interventions.

This gap is partly a result of uneven digital literacy, a lack of local evidence on effectiveness, and an unregulated digital health market where quality varies widely.

It is in this backdrop that a team led by Seema Mehrotra, professor of clinical psychology at NIMHANS, examined how campuses can take up a more strategic and evidence-driven approach.

The authors note that existing challenges extend from the absence of standardized guidelines for app developers to difficulties in sustaining student engagement.

Linguistic diversity, varying comfort levels with self-help tools, and the dominance of non-validated apps further complicate digital adoption.

They state that institutions need clear, accountable policies on data privacy, confidentiality, and governance before deploying any platform. Digital offerings, they emphasize, must not be perceived as a replacement for human-led care.

Recognizing that students are, in general, comfortable with technology, the paper discusses the value of placing digital tools within stepped-care frameworks, where credible self-help content can address mild concerns and higher-intensity, human-supported interventions are made available for more complex needs.

It emphasizes that digital systems should include algorithm-driven nudges to encourage timely help-seeking, clear communication about their capabilities and limits, crisis-support pathways, and sound integration with offline services.

"Our paper also mapped a broad landscape of potential applications for technology-enabled platforms," Dr Mehrotra told. "These include training institutional leaders and teachers on student-support practices, developing repositories of credible information for students, providing anonymous self-screening tools, hosting moderated peer-support spaces, offering minimally guided self-help programmes, conducting targeted outreach to distressed students who are not seeking professional help, enabling blended care models that integrate digital self-help with therapy sessions, and improving access to tele-helplines during crises," she said.

It also points out policy-level efforts to further reinforce digital mental health systems on campus: for example, national guidelines for the development of mental health apps; tools that assist users in negotiating digital offerings responsibly; and higher public investment.

The paper concludes that technology can improve access, efficiency, and stigma-free support when thoughtfully integrated into institutional ecosystems. However, specific activities of sustained commitment to research, governance, and policy development remain important.

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