A Practical Guide to Adapting Evidence-Based Treatments into Digital Single-Session Interventions for Youth

Most young people with mental health disorders do not receive any mental health care. Digital single-session interventions adapted from evidence-based treatments help address this problem by making potent therapeutic skills widely accessible. There is increasing demand and interest in developing digital single-session interventions, yet there is no guide to promote best practices. Objective: This paper guides readers through the development of effective, self-guided, digital single-session interventions for youth. Method: We convened eight researchers with extensive experience developing, testing, and disseminating digital single-session interventions for youth. This team collected and distilled lessons learned from over a dozen single-session intervention projects into this guide. Results: This paper has four parts: an introduction to demonstrate the value of single-session interventions, a step-by-step guide for developing effective single-session interventions, a case study demonstrating how we followed the steps in the development of a single-session intervention, and answers to frequently asked questions. The step-by-step guide breaks down the development process into five phases. During the preparation phase, we cultivate a single-session mindset. During collaboration, we assemble the right team to reach our target audience. During adaptation, we select an evidence-based treatment and a proven, standalone component to feature. During design, we create the content of the single-session intervention. Finally, during engagement, we use best practices to increase uptake and learning. These phases are summarized in a supplemental single-session intervention development checklist. Conclusion: This manuscript serves as a guide for the creation of effective, scalable, self-guided, digital single-session interventions for youth.