Development of an application to improve mental health (A)

• Main Author: Khor, Chin Yi
• Other Authors: Wesley Tan Chee Wah
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/166747
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Mental health is one of the significant problems faced by the world nowadays. According to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s World Mental Health Report, in 2019, about one in every eight people worldwide suffered from mental health disorders. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a 25% increase in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression, further worsening mental health around the globe. As the mental health concern grew, most countries developed new mental health information and phone support lines, offering tips to the public on coping measures. At the same time, many countries also increased their funding for mental health services. On top of that, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, therapy apps started to gain popularity among people struggling with mental health issues. More than 10,000 mental health apps exist in the market today to help improve the public's well-being. Generally, most of these applications present features that offer ways to stay engaged with the user, like daily reminders, feelings trackers, abundant learning materials, and search for therapists and treatments via the apps. However, most mental health applications only focus on self-help features for the patient rather than providing training to a user to provide peer support that helps those around him/her overcome their psychological issues. It is crucial to implement peer support in tackling mental health issues, as information provided by peers is usually seen as more credible and up-to-date than that offered by professionals. In the past decadePsychological First Aid (PFA), a group of skills to limit distress and negative health behaviour that could negatively impact the rehabilitation of people from a traumatic experience, became famous for peer support in handling mental health in the community. Previous research proved that personnel participating in the PFA training program could utilise the PFA skills to provide informal support to their friends and family members. Therefore, my team, comprised of 4 people, decided to develop a mental health application that provides PFA training to befrienders. Our proposed mental health had two types of users: the befrienders and the users who encounters mental health problems. I am responsible for building mobile applications that provide PFA knowledge training to the befrienders. This application serves as a learning platform with features for users to acquire essential knowledge and skills for PFA. Firstly, there are learning materials within the application for users to acquire PFA knowledge. These learning materials were extract from the book The Johns Hopkin Guide to Psychological First Aid. Next, the application also consists of an interactive, hands-on session with the application, stimulating a peer with a psychological issue. The application will give the possible scenarios when handling a mental health patient to user. The application would analyse how users react to that situation and provide constructive feedback accordingly. With these features in place, it could cultivate users' knowledge and skills in supporting individuals with mental health problems and thus increase the community's well-being.