Inspiration
The global outbreak of Covid-19 and the nationwide lockdown have caused all of us to dramatically change our daily routines, our physical activity and eating habits, and how we connect with our loved ones. All of these changes in our lives have had dramatic impacts on our mental health, decreasing the quality of our lives. Unfortunately, many people do not have the means to access or afford reliable mental health resources, and as a result have no other choice but to resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms or worse come to worse, suicide. No one, regardless of who they are or where they come from, should be denied mental health care. It’s time that we stop shying away from mental health issues and start discussing and coming up with solutions for them. It’s time that we start giving mental health the same value that we give to physical health because without peace of mind, we cannot live a fulfilling life. Mental health is an essential part of overall health that we as a society must stop ignoring!
What it does
Provides people, regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, or personal beliefs, with readily available and FREE mental health assistance and resources during a time when access to quality therapy and in-person appointments are limited. The app is simple so that it can be easily used by all people, even those with limited technological abilities.
How we built it
We built this app using Android Studio with the Java programming language. We started out by building a general overview/blueprint of what to consider for our app. Then we sketched a rough design of how the app will work and what features and functions to incorporate in our app. When we all mutually agreed on our ideas, we started developing with Android Studio and contributed our code with GitHub to bring our ideas to life. We all contributed equally to both the front-end and back-end, and along every step of the process extensively collaborated and learned from each other.
Challenges we ran into
Only two group members had prior computer science and coding knowledge, so it was a bit difficult to create the app at first. Fortunately, they were able to come up with an effective method to explain the basics of GitHub to the rest of the members.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We were able to create an app and plan out how we would implement it in less than 48 hours. But most importantly, we all learned a lot from each other. We all came from different disciplines and thus we were all teachers to each other. The mixture of all of our different ideas allowed us to come up with this incredible and much needed app. Although we didn’t get through everything we had planned, we are grateful to have learned so much in such little time. We hope to continue working on this app even after MedHacks and hopefully launch it in the near future!
What we learned
Coming in with limited programming experience, our team learned that we all have the ability to learn and accomplish difficult tasks with hard work and diligence. We learned the basics of developing a native app with Android Studio as well as managing version control software such as Git. For a lot of us it was our first time learning about the command line and unix-based terminal commands. Additionally, we learned the importance of system-design in a software engineering project as we had to explore options to store user information in a database and interface this data with other user information. There’s nothing in the world one cannot accomplish if they are dedicated and passionate. We should all strive to better ourselves and learn something new everyday. The world is full of endless knowledge that we should never cease to seek out. The more we learn, the more we can contribute to the world and the better the world can become. We will take these lessons with us wherever we go.
What's next for Co-health
We must add more criteria to the support group options in our app as well as include more mental health resources. We also plan on including an interface directed specifically towards the elderly, as they have been drastically impacted by the lockdown. In addition, we hope to make an iOS and web version of this app so that it can be accessible to Apple users and those who do not have smartphones. This will require us to refactor our code to a cross-platform framework such as Flutter, so we can write up code that will work on any type of device. We are far from done, as our app requires a lot of editing and there is always something that can be improved. We anticipate adding scalable database logic using Firebase so that we can create customizable chat rooms for people who want to talk about their problems in a community where others can relate with their problems. Once our application is fleshed out, we will start planning on deploying our app on the market so it can make an impact in the area of mental health.
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