Inspiration
To address both prompt 2 and 3, we decided to create an app that helped facilitate productive parent-child communication about mental health. We were inspired in part by our own experiences relaying feelings to our parents, and the heavy misunderstanding that often transpires on both sides. For children and young adults, social stigma can fuel our reluctance to open up and ask for help, while parents can be ill-informed and may not know how to respond. My own parents report not knowing what prompting questions to ask, careful not to overstep any boundaries and possibly make things worse.
What it does
Our app "Reconnects" parent to child by essentially acting as a mental health middle-man interpreter. At specific times throughout the day, the child will be prompted to reflect on their emotional state, anxiety levels, and general mood in a short survey. To maintain privacy, parents will not be able to see their responses directly, but receive interpretations and suggested actions and resources based on machine learning analysis.
How we built it
We used Flutter to build this app on Android, after coming across challenges making it work on IOS. We used layer elements to make the survey, and added local notifications at a scheduled time to notify the user when it was time for their daily check in.
Challenges we ran into
The notification system was way more difficult than initially anticipated. Making it work correctly it required a lot of modification to the Android manifest.xnl file, changing procedures to allow the notification to pop up even when the app was closed.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Making pop-up notifications work correctly was a significant obstacle we overcame. We also managed to write the script and record the video in a very limited timeframe.
What we learned
We definitely developed skills and experience working under pressure and time-constraints. This was also our first time building a mobile app, so we had to go through a bit of a bootcamp in Flutter overnight.
What's next for Reconnect
We haven't really thought that far ahead 😅. Talking to multiple parent couples, a lot of people seem to think Reconnect is a good idea that really has potential for real-world implementation, so we might come back to it in the future to see where else we can take it.
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