Anchor

Inspiration

We saw an Instagram video where someone with schizophrenia used a psychiatric service dog to help them with their hallucinations. We thought there must be a way to help schizophrenic people who don't have the capital and time to afford a psychiatric service dog.

What it does

Anchor pairs biometrics (heart rate, stress) from the user's Garmin watch with a conversational companion to support people living with schizophrenia. When their body shows an elevated heart rate or stress, it may signal the user is experiencing symptoms.

The app does not diagnose. It watches for patterns that might warrant a gentle check-in (i.e. sustained HR/stress relative to a personal baseline), then offers grounding (a chat bot, breathing, and sensory exercises) and optional alerts (email to the user) so support can show up sooner.

How we built it

We built it using TypeScript end-to-end. Next.js for the frontend, and Supabase for the database (including data such as biometric readings, baselines, and episode-related data). We used the Anthropic API for a grounding chat that can invoke structured "tools" such as box-breathing and a 5-4-3-2-1 sensory checklist. Biometrics were modeled off of a team member's Garmin data.

Challenges we ran into

Trying to serve as a tool and not a figure of authority (we want our app to serve as a warning and not a diagnosis for people).
We combatted this by making the app send emails suggesting that something may be wrong, rather than directly saying a user is having a schizophrenic episode. ## Accomplishments that we're proud of
Implementation of a chat bot in the app that gives comforting exercises
A simple UX with a comforting colour scheme
An email system where a user can be emailed based off of their biometrics ## What we learned
A digital solution helping schizophrenic people may be very much needed, as there is a huge barrier in obtaining a service dog: In North America, there are over 3.5 million people with schizophrenia, and there are only 500,000 service dogs in general. Narrowing it down to service dogs specialized for schizophrenia makes the discrepancy even greater. Furthermore, a service dog wait time may be up to 2-5 years, while also costing up to $50,000. Overall, due to reasons such as capital and time, schizophrenic people may benefit from digital solutions to their condition. ## What's next for Anchor Transitioning it to a mobile app, allowing the user to receive a notification in a more direct way instead of an email.