Depression Grand Challenge

The Depression Grand Challenge secured funding from friends and supporters in 2019 to develop STAND 2.0 — modular content that could be packaged together in different combinations and sequences to address common mental health issues such as low mood, worry, panic, trauma and poor sleep.

The STAND content library was developed to serve as the backbone for Tier 2 services in implementations of the STAND system of care. With COVID-19, however, the Depression Grand Challenge Executive Committee saw the opportunity to leverage the STAND content library for more uses, and now such content is available publicly. 

The current STAND content library consists of more than 30 lessons, and we continue to supplement and improve this content library. The lessons include text, exercises, audio recordings and animations designed to help users learn new cognitive behavioral skills and strategies to address various issues. 

Content development is an iterative process, leveraging expertise from within UCLA and from other universities. We hire a blended workforce of full and part-time employees, including undergraduate and graduate students and artists, sound editors and voice actors who work on storyboarding, scripts, exercises, animations, voice overs and editing to create the lessons. Much of the initial content first available in 2020 was created under the guidance of Zachary Cohen — a postdoctoral fellow at the time — and Tom Christiansen, who was a special projects consultant. Beginning in 2022, we hired a dedicated team, including instructional designers, to further refine the content.

We continue to expand the body of content and expect to add to the STAND content library.

How the content is delivered depends upon the implementation. For closed-system implementations, the content is delivered in a proprietary platform. For other implementations such as STAND Tips, content is delivered through public websites. For STAND for All, content is delivered through UCLA’s instance of Canvas, known as BruinLearn. 

A priority for the 2024-25 fiscal year is to identify and implement a new content delivery platform that might be used for both closed and open-system implementations. One platform undergoing pilot testing in Summer 2024 is reimagining the user experience with a segment of the STAND Content referred to as Wellness or Tier 1 content.  Th pilot is referred to as the STAND Wellness Resource.