Table 1.
Overview of recovery goals, search strategies, and technology tools used
| Recovery goal | Search strategy | Tools reviewed | Tools presented to participant | Tool selected by participant | Outcome after 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Build healthy daily habits (e.g., cleaning the kitchen every night before bed) |
Google; keywords best apps for goal tracking, habit building, goal setting; bestproducts.com, forbes.com, lifewire.com, buzzfeed.com | Productive, habit bull, strides, goalsontrack, coach.me | Productive, habit bull, strides | Habit bull | Added 2 new habits to daily routine; performing them consistently |
| Quit smoking | Recently-published review in scientific journal about smoking cessation apps for people with serious mental illness | Quit guide, quit for life |
Quit guide Quit for life |
Quit guide | Reduced smoking from heavy daily use to 1–2 cigarettes per day; also had medication support and described how the combination of medication and the app allowed such a significant reduction in smoking |
| Manage high-emotion situations with distraction | Google; keywords apps for winding down, game apps for relaxation, game apps stress | Silk 2, brain yoga, kami 2, alto’s adventure, paper toss, pigment, colorfy, silk paints, jigsaw Puzzle | Silk paints, brain yoga, kami 2, jigsaw puzzle, alto’s adventure |
Brain yoga kami 2 alto’s adventure |
Not applicable: Experienced psychiatric crisis and only used tools for 1 month |
| Meditate daily | Google; keywords best apps for meditation, beginning meditation; developgoodhabits.com, digitaltrends.com, therachat.com, thedailymind.com | Aura, Headspace, Calm, Buddhify, Stop Breathe Think | Aura, Headspace, Stop Breathe Think | Aura | Meditating daily as a routine and as needed to reduce stress during the day |
| Exercise and manage nutrition and weight | Google; keywords best apps for fitness, weight and exercise, nutrition, exercise; YouTube videos | SparkPeople, Lose It!, NIKE Training Club, Personal Fitness Coach, Fitness Buddy | Dropped out | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Learn to cook own healthy meals | Google; keywords best apps for cooking, recipes, vegetarian recipes, healthy recipes | How to cook everything vegetarian, green kitchen, big oven, yummly, sidechef, sparkrecipes | Big oven, yummly, sidechef | Yummly | Increased weekly home cooking from 0 times per week to several times per week |
| Track mood symptoms and sleep1 | Google; keywords apps for mood tracking, mood management, mood diary, mood journal, phq-9 apps | Day 1, journey, moodkit, eMoods, daylio, T2 mood tracker | Moodkit, eMoods, daylio | eMoods | Used tracking daily to help identify patterns in mood and sleep fluctuations; discussed weekly with case manager |
| Budget and manage moneya | Google; keywords best apps for budgeting, money management, money; NerdWallet.com | Mint, pocketguard, you need a budget (YNAB), prism, Albert | Pocketguard, mint | Pocketguard | Regularyly using app to track expenses and identify where overspending occurs |
| Learn how to use smartphoneb | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Individual Help | Consistently able to answer calls, read and respond to texts, and identify notifications as such |
aOne participant began by choosing the goal of tracking mood and then a month later started a second goal of budgeting and managing money
bThis individual struggled to use his smartphone in basic ways, like answering calls, opening text messages, and understanding notifications. The technology specialist provided individual instruction in three, 1 h sessions over 3 months