Inspiration
This was created as a result of brainstorming ideas for prompt 2 (Develop a platform that provides resources and communication tools for families of individuals undergoing rehabilitation to help support their loved one’s journey) while focussing into the family-focussed therapy (FFT) aspect of the prompt. To accelerate the progress of FFT, which would be vital to the overall emotional wellbeing of the family participating, we thought of a platform where therapy members could "journal" conflicts with family members in one shared journal (allowing for the parties involved to discuss possible solutions to the conflict in a less confrontational manner than face-to-face talking, which is not always an option if family members are not very close) and one private journal (allowing for the therapist to address concerns either directly on the shared journal or during their in-person session). This would further facilitate the development of interpersonal problem solving skills among the parties involved in therapy. Additionally, the therapist could consult these journals outside of the scheduled session to resolve minor conflicts and to prepare for the next session. Because this platform was designed for child use, it was decided to add multimedia features to allow users to express themselves in a visual or audible manner, as opposed to expressing themselves via text.
What it does
For clients (individuals undergoing FFT)
Individual clients gain access to two journals. These journals can feature collages, words of encouragement, (especially relevant for children in a healthcare setting participating in FFT), and other decorations, but the primary focus is to log conflicts and problems between individual family members.
- Clients in a family receives access to a family journal, where every family member can edit. By logging interpersonal conflicts in this journal, the other family members can discuss and collaborate on the journal to resolve conflict harmoniously. As conflict resolution is being done digitally instead of occurring in person, this approach mitigates the confrontational nature of pointing out others' shortcomings and problems.
- Individuals also receive a personal journal to voice conflicts of concern that may not be resolvable without the presence of a therapist. The therapist can view these journals to prepare for the next therapy session accordingly.
- Both journals allow for the therapist to intervene whenever the therapist is available, providing strategies to alleviate conflict. Clients also have access to a timeline where they can see how far they have progressed over their therapy sessions.
For therapists
Therapists can also access a page condensing all unreviewed edits made to journals, so they can facilitate interpersonal problem-solving skills in a promptly manner. Also, any significant / concerning developments can be flagged / bookmarked for future reference.
How we built it
We built the visuals using HTML and CSS, and programmed the whiteboard / journal (used interchangeably in the project) using JavaScript. Whiteboards are rendered via JavaScript canvases, where previous entries to the journal are dynamically added with JavaScript. Edits, saved in JSON files, are supposed to be saved to and accessed via the server using rudimentary AJAX calls, although the colossal nature of this project prevented any developments on the backend, unfortunately.
Challenges we ran into
The size of this undertaking was immense, especially given the time constraint of 23 hours. Although a VERY basic whiteboard has been created that can export and import JSON files to access previous work, further development could not proceed. After the hackathon, we will probably work on this project more to bring it to its full potential.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Anik:
- Even though the whiteboard / journal (the integral component to this platform) could not be fully completed, it was rewarding to program a component heavily reliant on graphics. Nikhil:
- Website designs.
What we learned
As we are novices in software development, we have reinforced our general skills in designing interactive websites. We have also learned about APIs and file storage in the browser context (local storage, cookies, external storage (dealing with files in this case), etc.)
What's next for CareConnect Journal
Over the course of August, we'll probably finish the barebones whiteboard / journal component, and then the simultaneous collaboration mechanic. After fine-tuning the client experience on mobile devices and optimising the platform, we will continue on with server development. We do not plan on completing this for another year at least, since the complexity of this project is staggering.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.