Innovative Design Experiences to Improve Mental Health

Mental health issues are common worldwide and affect people in many ways. These issues include changes and instability in personality and mood, depression and anxiety, withdrawal from events and activities, etc. Computational approaches, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), in the early detection of mental disorders are promising. Even though machine learning methods provide high-throughput results, these methods have many limitations in mental health care. The insights provided in mental health application mathematically are sound and valid, however, presenting those results without proper interpretations driven by mental health providers in this field have led to more complications and confusions rather than helping the users. Most apps are useless at best, and harmful at worst, due primarily to a disconnect between the designers building the apps and the providers in the field of mental health.
Refresh intends to offer a novel approach to address this ongoing challenge, in Canada and abroad. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive mental wellness platform that can be used in both individual and workplace settings to monitor and analyze mental health patterns, and generate appropriate solutions to address them. T

Faculty Supervisor:

Raymond Spiteri

Student:

Partner:

Refresh Enterprises Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Social Innovation; New and Digital Media; Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program: