Frequently Asked Questions

Subject: Try moodgym! Body: Hi there! I would like you to try moodgym. moodgym is like an interactive, online self-help book which helps you to learn and practise skills which can help to prevent and manage symptoms of depression and anxiety. Benefits of moodgym moodgym is free for all Australians. You can access the program online using any device, anywhere, and at any time. It has been widely evaluated and shown to be effective for reducing anxiety and depression. The information you share with moodgym is stored securely and kept confidential. Register by going to https://moodgym.com.au and following the registration steps. All you need is an email address. Note that your use of moodgym will not be shared with me or anyone else. Kind regards.

Subject: Try e-couch! Body: Hi there! I would like you to try the e-couch self-help program. e-couch is an online program which can help you manage the symptoms of common mental health issues. It includes information about what you might be going through and teaches evidence-based strategies and practical self-help approaches. e-couch offers five programs: Depression, Anxiety & Worry, Social Anxiety, Divorce & Separation and Loss & Bereavement. Benefits of e-couch e-couch is free for all Australians. You can access the program online using any device, anywhere, and at any time. It has been widely evaluated and shown to be effective for reducing anxiety and depression. The information you share with e-couch is stored securely and kept confidential. Register by going to https://ecouch.com.au and following the registration steps. All you need is an email address. Note that your use of e-couch will not be shared with me or anyone else. Kind regards.

e-hub Health’s self-help programs provide users with anonymous access to evidence-based information, and self-help for mental health and wellbeing. Guided by scientific evidence, clinical guidelines and ethical standards, our services have been accredited for compliance with the Australian National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards.

There is no charge for Australians to use e-hub Health’s self-help programs. Funding from the Commonwealth Department for Health and Aged Care makes moodgym and e-couch programs available to all Australians for free.

moodgym and e-couch provide training in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) (including digital/Internet-delivered CBT (iCBT)), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) and psychoeducation, which are recommended treatments for depression and anxiety disorders in the clinical practice guidelines. You can access the clinical practice guidelines through the following links: • 2020 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Pschiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders • Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and generalised anxiety disorder

moodgym was originally designed as a depression prevention program for young people aged 16- to 25-years old. However, the program has been shown to be effective in adults, so users are any individuals who would like to prevent or manage mental health problems which are troubling but not incapacitating. e-couch was designed for adult users interested in learning more about mental health strategies for feelings of depression or anxiety. These programs are not appropriate for crisis help, and if a user’s symptoms are distressing or limiting, they should seek advice from a GP, mental health professional, psychologist, or a specialist medical practitioner.

A government agency called the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care wrote the Digital Mental Health Standards to help people identify high quality digital mental health services. They worked with people who use digital mental health, mental health experts and industry to make sure that accredited services pay attention to the things that keep services safe. An accredited service keeps your information private and they will ask for your feedback to make the service better. They also make sure their services are based on strong evidence. A service gets accredited by an approved agency that has been trained to check for safety and quality issues. They check evidence to show the service meets the Digital Mental Health Standards so you can know that the service keeps people safe. The Commission has more information on the Digital Mental Health Standards and what accreditation means.

Visit our Emergency Help page for crisis support and other resources. All e-hub Health's programs provide information about crisis and emergency services and encourage users to seek outside help – especially if, for example, the user indicates that their symptoms are severe. BluePages provides detailed information about emergency help, treatments for depression, and maintains state and national service directories.

No. The information provided throughout e-hub Health's self-help programs is intended for information and skill development purposes only, and is not a substitute for seeking diagnosis and treatment from a qualified person. Always consult a medical practitioner or mental health professional if you require a diagnosis or treatment for depression, anxiety or other mental disorders. Persons under age 16 with depressive symptoms should speak to their parents about seeking professional help.

All information users enter into the e-hub Health's self-help programs (answers to quizzes, exercises, workbooks, and diaries) are kept confidential, and e-hub Health is under a legal obligation to protect this information. Full details about e-hub Health’s policies for managing, using and disclosing personal information are available at the moodgym Privacy policy and the e-couch Privacy policy.

No. However, if you are supporting a person as they work through moodgym or e-couch, the person can print out copies of their questionnaires and responses to exercises to discuss them with you.

e-hub Health's programs aim to provide self-help training to users as anonymously as feasible (and with minimal barriers to use), in order to encourage wide-ranging access. The programs collect as few identifying personal details as possible. Users of moodgym and e-couch do need to enter a valid email address to register an account (so they can recover their account details if required), however, users are able to create a separate email address or account alias to protect their anonymity. Users can delete their account and data at any time. Except for a welcome email, user-initiated password-reset emails, and in unusual circumstances such as reporting an extended service outage, emails are not sent to users. Human interaction only occurs when support staff are responding to user-initiated email requests. In order to protect the data we collect from users, e-hub Health has stringent information protection strategies in place for the collection, use, disclosure, storage, transmission, retention and destruction of data. Full details about e-hub Health’s policies for managing, using and disclosing personal information are available at the moodgym Privacy policy and the e-couch Privacy policy.

moodgym and e-couch incorporate a range of assessments including the Social Phobia Screener (SOPHS), however, the main symptom measures are the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Quizzes. These surveys have 9 items and are answered yes/no. The programs provide the user with feedback about the number of symptoms they are experiencing compared to others of their age group and gender. Detailed information about the assessments used in e-hub Health's programs is available in the e-hub Health Clinician Manual (44.5mb).

"I wouldn't recommend a self-help book without reading it myself, but I don't have time to work through the programs. How can I quickly scan through the programs?" Detailed information about the programs is available in the e-hub Health Clinician Manual (44.5mb). Printable information sheets that summarise the interventions can be downloaded from the Health Professionals page. You can also register with the programs to sample the content.

When an individual wants to work on their mental health, the user can work through the program themselves (self-help) or with the support of a carer or health professional. Mental health professionals can also incorporate the programs into their practice as directed self-help (for example within a stepped care service or as a suggested resource for clients on waiting lists), as guided self-help or as an adjunct to other therapies. For more information and clinicians’ resources, please see the Health Professionals page.

e-hub Health welcomes independent research on the use of moodgym with specific population groups or settings. Please contact the e-hub Health team to discuss your research proposal.

You are welcome to promote and link to the e-hub Health's self-help programs.

Please submit your request for consideration by the BluePages team. If you are a health professional, please ensure your website displays your professional registration/affiliation with appropriate links, alongside emergency contact information.

We encourage educational institutions, not for profit organisations and businesses to promote e-hub Health's self-help programs to their students, members or employees with links to the program websites. moodgym, e-couch and BluePages are freely available to all Australians thanks to funding from the Department of Health and Aged Care. Please see the Organisations page for more information.