Grant: Project Grant

Approximately one in 10 fathers experience mental health difficulties during their partner's pregnancy and/or the postpartum period. Fathers' mental health difficulties negatively impacts parenting, family functioning and child development. A recent call for action recommends routine screening of fathers in the postpartum for depression and the importance of providing timely interventions. Yet interventions tailored to men during this life stage to reduce their risk of mental health problems are lacking. Interventions delivered over the internet have been shown to be a far-reaching, acceptable and effective method of preventing and treating psychological problems, but low usage by users is a concern. We have developed HealthyDads, a prototype bilingual website with accurate information on topics related to mental health, parenting and health behaviours, along with strategies to improve each. Findings from our pilot study generated new ideas for intervention features to increase engagement with the intervention. Increasing engagement with on-line interventions is critical to improving their impact. The main objective of this proposal is to evaluate the acceptability of an engagement enhanced internet intervention targeting the mental health expectant fathers and the feasibility of a refined evaluation protocol to increase retention at follow-ups prior to conducting a large-scale trial. This study will provide new knowledge on the success of specific features designed to improve engagement with an on-line mental health intervention targeting men during the transition to parenthood. Ultimately, if found effective, this mental health program delivered over the internet will help to overcome the lack of father focused interventions targeting the mental health of new fathers.