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  • Perspective
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Digital mental health needs a purpose-driven approach

Nature Human Behaviour volume 10, pages 227–238 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Digital mental health (DMH) encompasses telepsychiatry, mobile apps, games and artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented interventions. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the development and deployment of DMH solutions, particularly those incorporating AI-based mental health support. In this Perspective, we consider both the technological and clinical design spaces and advocate for purpose-driven, patient-centred solutions rather than a technology-first approach. The purpose of DMH should be to address societal gaps in mental healthcare, following established frameworks for chronic illness management to meet the specific needs of each patient. We examine the ethical dimensions of DMH, underscoring the importance of procedural justice, harm prevention and data privacy. Additionally, we highlight the unique challenges faced by marginalized and vulnerable populations, emphasizing the role of DMH in promoting equal availability of mental healthcare. Aligning DMH with user perspectives, ethical considerations and clinician involvement can result in more effective and empathetic digital interventions, thereby transforming mental healthcare delivery.

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Fig. 1: The purpose-driven framework to approach DMH.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the use of large language and multimodal models to assist with drafting and editing. All outputs were verified and integrated by the authors to ensure accuracy and integrity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science and Engineering, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar

    Mowafa Househ, Zain Ul Abideen Tariq, Jens Schneider & Mounir Hamdi

  2. Department of Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

    Hurmat Ali Shah

  3. College of Public Policy, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar

    Diana Alsayed Hassan

  4. College of Health Sciences, Education Centre of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Mohamed Khalifa

  5. Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Mohamed Khalifa

  6. Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar

    Alaa Abd-Alrazaq & Arfan Ahmad

  7. College of Law, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar

    Barry Solaiman

  8. School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    Andre Kushniruk

  9. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Saleem Khaldoon Al-Nuaimi

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Contributions

M. Househ led the team by providing overall supervision, outlining the study, supplying materials and analysis tools, and contributing to the writing of the paper. H.A.S., J.S. and M. Hamdi conducted the core technical work. Z.U.A.T. and D.A.H. contributed to both the technical and conceptual development of the study. M.K. and D.A.H. contributed to the mental-health- and ethics-related sections. A.A.-A. provided materials and analysis tools and contributed to writing the paper. A.A. contributed materials and analysis tools. B.S. contributed content on the legal dimensions of the topic. A.K. contributed to the health informatics aspects. S.K.A.-N. contributed to the psychiatry- and mental-health-related content. All authors reviewed the manuscript, provided critical feedback and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mowafa Househ.

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Summary of findings and observations.

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Househ, M., Shah, H.A., Tariq, Z.U.A. et al. Digital mental health needs a purpose-driven approach. Nat Hum Behav 10, 227–238 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02380-6

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