A Student-Centered Mental Health Virtual Community Needs and Features: A Focus Group Study.

Mental health is a pervasive challenge in the population and especially for university/college students on campuses across North America. Anxiety, stress and depression are on the rise and a scalable, economically sound innovation is essential to address these mental health challenges. The research team has conducted 8 focus groups in April to May 2016 in order to elicit perspectives of students at York University about their online activities and the development of an online mindfulness based Mental Health Virtual Community. This paper explains the main results of the qualitative analysis pertaining to the challenges and benefits of an online mindfulness based Mental Health Virtual Community.