WellConnect
Authors:
Alan Ly, Joseph TrevinoMentor:
Gillian Hayes, Professor, University of California IrvineMany individuals are affected by mental health issues which make their daily functions much more difficult. Approximately ten percent of young adults, ranging from ages 18 to 25, suffer from major depression. Young adults from low-income families are much more vulnerable to depression and its consequences. Successful treatment can be very challenging because of issues such as missed appointments, poor medication adherence, and limited access to care. Most patients have little access to primary care mental health services, limiting their doctor visits to one time within a 2 to 3 month time frame. To empower self-care for these young adults, we will design an Android based application that will allow the patients to manage appointments and medication, self-report moods, and validate depressed indexes. Constant notifications and ability to record notes allow patients to confidently meet with their doctors on time and better prepared. A medication check list will remind users of their medicine information such as medicine name, the time to take, and the amount to take. Using the graphing feature to record moods, users will be more aware of any downward mood trends. Moreover, weekly surveys will detect for depression, and it will alert the user with a suicidal hotline if the user scores too low. To improve the application, all data will be stored at a clinician database, where they are able to monitor the user’s situation. When problems arise, clinicians are able to intervene with the patient’s treatment thus expanding limited visits to an anywhere anytime care.