HEAL - The counselling app

Idea

During this pandemic we have seen many around us are subjected to loneliness, stress, anxieties,depressions.This was mainly due to the restrictions of movement around our home and society and even many lost their jobs.People are forced to stay inside their homes and we can't even travel , further interaction between people also got reduced too.As students we are struggling to cope up with the realities of online classes which is so tiresome and this is where our inspiration comes from.We are so interested in sorting these problems and make difference in the lives of the people around us who are also struggling to handle this situations thereby helping them to improve their mental status and in making them lively again. Human psychology has always been an area of utmost wonder. A healthy mind is the core of a healthy body. Complicated thoughts and endless emotions, most of the time drags us into anxiety, depression and many other chaos. Moreover, COVID-19 has hit us hard causing the graph of stress and depression to rise rapidly. Studies have shown that symptoms of anxiety and depression have increased from 11% to 39% during the pandemic time. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession have negatively affected many people’s mental health and created new barriers for people already suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. During the pandemic, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, a share that has been largely consistent, up from one in ten adults who reported these symptoms from January to June 2019.A KFF Health Tracking Poll from July 2020 also found that many adults are reporting specific negative impacts on their mental health and well-being, such as difficulty sleeping (36%) or eating (32%), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12%), and worsening chronic conditions (12%), due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. As the pandemic wears on, ongoing and necessary public health measures expose many people to experiencing situations linked to poor mental health outcomes, such as isolation and job loss. Consulting a psychologist or seeking help from a therapist can be of great help but again the pandemic has closed those doors shut. Many of the times, analyzing the mental and emotional state of the person accurately is a challenge for therapists.so we provide you with the Heal app for counselling .we provide you with a unique feature which is Machine learning . this is what makes us unique from others .Predicting mental health early and precisely has major implications for clinical management and practice, and ultimately life expectancy. This project will use machine learning techniques to produce robust modelling tools that aim to improve the precision of clinical practice in mental health. Machine learning will be used to predict and classify disease risk at an individual level (for dementia, anxiety, depression, and others) and to determine the interactive factors that influence mental health across people’s lifespans (e.g. genetics, cognition, demographics).

Inspiration

Working.

Our app is to help people connect with the best therapists beyond any physical restrictions.A person can seek help from the therapist of their choice through a video meeting. They can also choose any language according to their preference. In this modern era where AI and ML have already touched the nook and corner of various fields, we tried to incorporate the same in our app. During the video meeting, the mental state of the person which includes stress, anxiety, depression and confidence levels is evaluated and displayed on the therapist's screen which enables him to assess the person precisely. This is made possible by feeding various data sets and developing ML/AI algorithms. Our app also provides a feature for analysing the progress of the person with the help of level bars and day-to-day reports. A 24*7 service support is also made available for seamless assistance.It also provides feedback and location features that enables the user to rate the counsellor which inturn helps other users to select the counselor/therapist of a particular location according to their choice by viewing the ratings.Slot booking facilities are also available so that the counselor can schedule the meeting conveniently.Our app adds an expert advice and treat the problem if the counselor loses his/her judgement. Every meeting is recorded and the useful data from it is used to increase the accuracy of further consultations. Over a few months, with the increase of available data set, the app will attain 95-100% accuracy. When we look ahead, we see this app turning into a perfection, constantly providing support for millions around the world. The uniqueness of our app is the use of machine learning to treat our users.Machine learning algorithms could help determine key behavioral biomarkers to aid mental health professionals in deciding if a patient is at risk of developing a particular mental health disorder. Additionally the algorithms may assist in tracking effectiveness of a treatment plan.It comes down to every patient having their own biology, triggers, and reactions to stress and conditions like depression. Many of the symptoms for mental health disorders overlap and although some of the key indicators for mental health disorders are known, a trial and error treatment plan is not acceptable. Machine learning algorithms provide a ripe opportunity for psychiatrists and mental health professionals to identify sub-types of different disorders and develop more catered treatment plans and medication dosages.

Hardware

RAM- storage space is required for the app

Software

-Flutter Cross-platform applications are a long-standing dream of any business, because separate native iOS and Android apps are more expensive to develop and maintain. Flutter offers a quick way to create visually attractive apps for both operational systems, desktop computers, and the web from a single codebase. It is actively used and promoted by Google, and we expect that it will become universally popular in the near future.We used flutter as our app development software. The advantage of Flutter is not only in making one application instead of two. With this framework, you will also have fewer problems when adapting your app to each of the platforms. Most frameworks can cope, but that’s only if you consider them in the context of simple applications. The real problems begin when an application becomes “overgrown” with functions and inevitably gets complicated (it is about most products during the development stage).

-Figma- Figma is a web-based graphics editing and user interface design app. You can use it to do all kinds of graphic design work from wireframing websites, designing mobile app interfaces, prototyping designs, crafting social media posts, and everything in between. Figma is different from other graphics editing tools.We used figma for making the prototype for the app

Flutlab FlutLab is a modern Flutter online IDE and the best place to create, debug, and build cross-platform projects.We used flutlab for generating the code

Design

Simple and user-friendly design is used for building this app.We have a minimalistic design approach in order to create a simple and highly usable mobile application. When an application tells you how to navigate from one screen to another, it can be really complicated for users to figure it out. Therefore, if users already know the native UI element, it will be easy for them to follow the steps, as they will intuitively understand the application.We use this type of native component in our app.

Social impact

Counselling can make a profound impact on the lives of individuals,our app helps people navigate difficult life situations, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, natural disasters, school stress and the loss of a job. It provides the tools and insights to manage mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. Ultimately, counseling empowers people to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.It is important to realize that counseling and mental health treatment is a healthy action for everybody. A little counseling can help everyone to improve in their everyday life. Using our app allows you to speak your truth without filters and without pause. You never have to worry about having others jump into your conversation or feeling as though you are dumping a huge burden on someone. Our app acts as a support system that allows you to speak with counselors in whatever way you need in order to find healing. In this pandemic fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or real threats, and at times when we are faced with uncertainty or the unknown. So it is normal and understandable that people are experiencing fear in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Added to the fear of contracting the virus in a pandemic such as COVID-19 are the significant changes to our daily lives as our movements are restricted in support of efforts to contain and slow down the spread of the virus. Faced with new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends and colleagues, it is important that we look after our mental, as well as our physical, health.Our app provides relief from these problem. anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the world. They affect 40 million adults, or 18.1% of the population, every year. Furthermore, anxiety disorders affect 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years old, putting them at a much higher risk to perform poorly in school, engage in substance abuse, and miss out on important social experiences. Even though this disorder is highly treatable, only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment, most likely due to a perceived societal stigma, with men far less likely to seek treatment. Our app help the people who didnt receive any treatment .

Further Advancement

We would like to expand the reach of this app to remote areas and other cosmopolitan cities through advertisements and other social awareness programmes.We have to make it more user friendly and interesting.We have to provide an in-app search engine so as to make the search easy and quick. The easy navigation design, the advanced search and information architecture will all improve the usability of your app to a great extent. Moreover, we can add animation, transitions or automation, since they 'look good' in native mobile apps.