‘E-learning’ can be defined broadly as the use of internet technologies to deliver teaching and to enhance knowledge and performance. It is also referred to as web-based, online, distributed or internet-based learning (Ruiz et al. 2006). Many sites use ‘blended learning’, where e-learning is combined with in-person or virtual face-to-face instructor-led training.

The increase in portability, power and connectivity of devices means that most smartphones can easily access information in real time (Marzano et al. 2017) and, of internet users worldwide, 93% access the internet via mobile devices (Johnson 2021). This means that access to the internet to gather information about mental health is immediate, but the vast number of information sites can easily become overwhelming for both patients and clinicians. A simple search for a single mental health topic generates a huge number and range of results. These vary from reviews of the evidence and primary research articles, to news articles and advertisements for treatment centres. The internet user is swamped with an array of sites of variable (and often unknown) quality, which are neither necessarily relevant to the original question nor ranked in order of reliability.