Internet sites are increasingly being used to disseminate clinical resources to mental health clinicians. Wikimedia platforms (e.g., Wikipedia and Wikiversity) are open-source, freely available resources that are among the most visited websites and could be an effective way to disseminate mental health information. An important first step in learning how to optimize the impact of such dissemination efforts is to understand how and for what reasons practicing clinicians already engage with these resources. Using a convenience sample of 120 practicing mental health clinicians (82.5% female, 85.6% white, M age = 41.31), we assessed clinician-reported practices about where and how they seek information about psychological science on the internet. Our results showed that freely available resources related to mental health are not a primary source of information for mental health clinicians and that clinicians have low confidence in the veracity of information available through Wikipedia and Wikiversity. Clinicians shared strategies (e.g., implementing verification steps on Wiki platform pages) that could increase clinician confidence in the information provided and their likelihood of using these sites as resources. Overall, this study indicates that mental health clinicians are not regularly using Wiki sites for mental health-related questions, even though they are accessible, regularly updated, and increasingly reliable. Findings suggest that implementing verification steps on Wiki pages could increase clinicians’ confidence in the information provided and their likelihood in using these sites as resources, however, it remains unclear whether verification steps would lead to more frequent use or how such a system would be implemented through existing platforms. Results will help guide future dissemination efforts to increase the availability and utilization of evidence-based psychological science online for clinicians.

Though not specific to the research published, Author AVM reports funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (grant K23MH120505): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/. Author AY reports funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (grant K23DA044288): https://nida.nih.gov/. Author EAY reports funding from the NIMH (grant NIH R01 MH123443): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/. No funders played any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. All other authors report no competing financial interests. Author EAY is the executive director of Helping Give Away Psychological Science (HGAPS), a 501c3 charitable organization. Authors AVM, AY, MTQ, and EMBH are former board members of the HGAPS organization. Information obtained through this study will inform strategic planning for this organization. EAY has received royalties from the American Psychological Association and Guilford Press, consulted with Signant Health about psychological assessment, and with the public defender?s office of the State of Ohio as a consultant for the defense about bipolar disorder. All other authors report no competing non-financial interests.

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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Procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pennsylvania IRB and the study was performed in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. All respondents provided informed consent prior to participation.

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Data are available upon request from first author SY (sophia.young@pennmedicine.upenn.edu).