Inspiration
Inspired by keynote speeches on hacking for social change, we decided to create a tool that addresses mental health -- a topic that is personally meaningful and relevant to us. There is an abundance of apps for tracking physical health, but much fewer dedicated to mental health. We envisioned an app that allows people to assess and track their mental health progress, find resources, and cultivate mindfulness.
What it does
The app comprises of multiple features: (1) Depression Screening We used the PHQ-9, a questionnaire used by medical professionals to screen for depression and general mental health. With the scores, we direct users to appropriate help and resources.
(2) Daily well-being tracker (mood, physical activity, sleep, nutrition) Records of the past 7 days of scores are displayed in graphs. This provides a visual for how you have been doing this past week, and what to improve on for next.
(3) Resources This page details tips for daily lifestyle habits to improve mental health. Those that are screened for mild to severe depression are also directed to further resources (eg. National Institute of Mental Health services).
How we built it
We built it on the Android platform. We used an external library for graphing on the Android platform.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into a bug where the radio group and the recycler view on Android are not compatible with each other when the data is backed by objects. We thus decided to disable scrolling back up on the recycler view.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're thrilled that our idea could help people and raise awareness about a cause that is meaningful to us. We're proud to have created an app with positive and impactful implications.
What we learned
We learned that hackathons can be exciting and (seriously) fun for everyone, no matter the experiences or backgrounds that team members come in with. I realized that everyone brings valuable skill sets to the table, whether in coding, design, or in our case, even psychology.
What's next for WHACK-MindfulMatters
There are many more intricacies to mental health that we could not account for in this app at the moment. We hope to implement additional features, including in-app messaging, customizable habit tracking, questionnaires to screen for other mental illnesses, encouraging/uplifting notifications and reminders, gratitude logs, and much more.
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