Inspiration

Finding a therapist for people who need help is a time consuming and frustrating process. It often requires making dozens of phone calls, most of which are never returned. Therapists are also flooded with calls and emails from people they cannot realistically help.

What it does

BeSeen allows people who seek therapy to upload one single form, which is parsed into a database. Clinicians or service providers will then be able to select only clients that are appropriate for their expertise based on filters such as symptoms, time availability, financial resources and location. While they are waiting to be matched, the information clients provide is also used to send them personalized information about other resources that could be beneficial.

How I built it

Frontend: written in Bluma/JS and makes POST requests to the backend. POST requests both send data to the backend and query it for data relevant to the client portal

Backend: written in Python. Loops over POST requests and responds to them appropriately based on filter or other parameters. Stores data in sqlite3 database.

Challenges I ran into

Brainstorming with new teammates Deciding and prioritizing the features Coordinating frontend and backend

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We successfully integrated the expertise of people with different backgrounds: clinical, scientific and IT. We tackled a concrete problem, which is widespread and impacts both the clients and the clinicians. We provided a simple and flexible tool, which can be expanded to include more interventions, support providers and that can deliver rich analytics on which interventions are effective on an individual basis.

What I learned

Trends, apps, problems in mental health space Importance of technologies in solving mental health problems Significance of having a well balanced and diverse team Stigma related to mental problems Issues in accessibility of mental health resources

What's next for Be Seen

AI-based recommender system NLP as an alternative to the questionnaire

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