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Authors
Okike, Udochukwu John-bright https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0021-0742
Eche, Amarachi Tyndale
Amaechi, Chimeremeze Victor
Hewage, Pradeep
Garg, Anchal
Houten, Adel
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Funding
Funding for this research was provided by:
University of Greater Manchester's Harrison funding scheme
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Article History
Received: 18 February 2026
Accepted: 8 July 2026
First Online: 20 July 2026
Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Greater Manchester (formerly the University of Bolton) Code of Practice on Ethical Standards for Research Involving Human Participants. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Greater Manchester Research Ethics Committee on 04 October 2025 ( Reference: Project COMP7303 ).
Consent for publication: Not applicable.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study, via a digital consent process integrated into the platform’s onboarding and terms of service prior to participation. This process set out the study purpose, the nature and limitations of AI-mediated interaction (including that the system was not a crisis service), and how participant data would be used and stored, and was reviewed and approved by the University of Greater Manchester Research Ethics Committee as part of the ethical approval referenced above.
Clinical trial registration: Not applicable. This study is a technical framework evaluation and feasibility study, not a clinical trial.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
