Healing Roots

Inspiration

Growing up, many of us grapple with mental health challenges as we strive to achieve our dreams and navigate personal and academic pursuits. Along the way, we forge deep connections with like-minded peers, forming a supportive community that shares our triumphs and struggles. However, stigma within the Black community often prevents individuals from seeking help for mental health issues, perpetuating the belief that vulnerability is a sign of weakness.

Our project, Healing Roots, was born from the experience of a childhood friend who battled panic attacks in silence isolating herself from those she loves due to societal stigma surrounding mental illness in the Black community. With Healing Roots, we aim to address the interactive barriers to therapy caused by this stigma. Through AI technology, our platform offers non-judgmental support and guidance. Sprouty, our AI companion, guides individuals through episodes, offering recommended exercises and techniques to manage symptoms. It also monitors users' mental status and can alert emergency services if necessary. Our app addresses the interactive aspects of therapy through AI technology, providing non-judgmental support to users and given them a new method to document and control their patient data through a EMHR they get to control access to. EMHR is a resource that would allow providers to get a holistic view of the patinet Mental Health record before their appointment and quicken the intake process to eventually save patients money and allow the providers useful insight on their patients. Healing Roots aims to combat stigma and provide accessible support for those in our community facing mental health challenges.

What it does

The primary goal of this project is to confront the significant disparity in mental health resources within the Black community. This is done by:

1. Providing crisis management tools at their fingertips
2. Providing affordable and accessible counseling services
3. Streamlining the process of transitioning between healthcare providers, effectively reducing both the time and cost associated with medical visits.

The key features of healing roots include:

1. An Electronic Mental Health Record (EMHR) offers centralized storage of patient information, encompassing medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans, alongside mental health assessments, therapy notes, triggers, and progress reports. By integrating mental health data into overall treatment plans, healthcare providers can tailor personalized care strategies considering both physical and psychological factors. EMHR facilitates communication and collaboration among primary care physicians, mental health professionals, and other healthcare providers to ensure coordinated care for patients with dual physical and mental health needs. Additionally, it empowers patients to actively engage in their care by granting access to mental health information, self-assessment tools, and educational resources through the EHR patient portal.

2. Sprouty, a crisis AI Helper, is designed to aid individuals experiencing anxiety or panic attacks by guiding them through breathing techniques and meditations, offering various advantages. During moments of crisis, access to human support or providers may be unavailable. Sprouty ensures immediate assistance, delivering guidance precisely when needed. Unlike traditional therapy, which may have limited availability, Sprouty is accessible 24/7 from anywhere with an internet connection, extending support to individuals in remote or isolated locations. Those experiencing anxiety or panic attacks may hesitate to seek help due to fear of judgment. Sprouty provides a non-judgmental environment, where individuals can receive guidance without fear of criticism. Additionally, each person's experience with anxiety differs, and Sprouty can provide personalized guidance tailored to individual needs, enhancing effectiveness and relevance. Moreover, it can seamlessly integrate with Electronic Mental Health Records (EMHR), alerting providers of crises and granting access to AI notes for comprehensive evaluation of health.

How we built it

We utilized PowerApps and Figma.

Challenges we ran into

Understanding app development from the backend was a significant challenge. Designing the UI to be clear and intuitive was a very time-consuming task. Generalizing usage for our application was a significant hurdle that we made the executive decision to address in later developmental phases.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our accomplishments include: The completion of a functional application prototype. Ease of communication between developers and our task delegation process to increase productivity.

What we learned

Our key takeaways are: Ways to market our product to appeal to our target demographic. How to build a profitable business model without selling or compromising users' data privacy. How to facilitate effective collaboration among a team with an interdisciplinary background.

What's next for Healing Roots

1. Future iterations may be applied to the storage of complete health records, proposing a universal system for transferring records between hospital and clinic personnel
2. With more research and data to train our AI, it may become more applicable to use in managing issues other than depression and anxiety attacks
3. Increased reach of our solution by expanding services internationally, connecting to providers outside of the US
4. Increased cybersecurity measures in protecting health data and overcoming any expected hesitation in using our app due to privacy concerns 6.Addition of more conversational mental health and spiritual health features such as psychic readings being incorporated into the AI

Built With

• figma
• powerapps