Problem Justification:
According to Alfonso Andrés Fernández Medina, deputy director of Information of the General Directorate of Science Dissemination (DGDC) of one of the most prestigious institutions in Mexico: the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), at some point in their lives, a quarter of the world’s population will suffer from a mental disorder: schizoid, depression, anxiety or phobias. In addition, out of every 100 Mexicans, 15 have depression and those affected can live up to 15 years without knowing that they have this disorder.
Taking into account the data from the Ministry of Health in its 2022 report, depression is the most frequent disorder in the Mexican population. And in general, out of 100% of people who have some mental disorder, 81.4% do not receive appropriate care.
If we ask ourselves the reason why treatment is not received, according to Maria Elena Medina Mora, Director of the Faculty of Psychology at UNAM, 70% of Mexicans who require psychological help do not receive it, since they consider that they can cope with these conditions on their own. This is strongly linked to the stigma that exists about mental health care, known as the main cause, according to INEGI, of the lack of attention. The second is ignorance and the third is lack of time.
Unfortunately, the consequence of a lack of treatment or recognition of the problem by people with a disorder is the worsening of it. In Mexico, suicide is the fourth cause of death in people aged 15 to 29. , with one person succeeding in suicide for every 20 who attempt it.
The entities that have the highest rates are: Chihuahua, Yucatan and Campeche. Most of these states belong to the southern zone of the country, which receives the least resources in the field of mental health according to data from the Undersecretariat of Prevention and Promotion of Health in its 2nd Operational Diagnosis of Mental Health and Addictions of 2022.
Our Approach:
Our direct interest is to deal with the second cause: the lack of recognition of the problem. Not identifying how we feel or even not wanting to acknowledge that we do not feel “well” is the basis of the project idea.
Our approach is not to be a replacement for a psychologist, because the people who will use the application do not necessarily know that they are unwell, and if marketed as another psychology app, it would be rejected by the stigmatization of mental health. We are a tool for expressing yourself on social networks, that when it detects that it is necessary, it brings you closer to activities, events and friends; or the help of a professional.
By encouraging you to detect emotions through a photo which no one else but the user will see, we want you to feel confident to show what you really feel, since the purpose of the photo is simply to create a phrase and an image related, using Generative Artificial Intelligence.
The application also keeps track of emotions on a daily basis and in case of detecting a continuous week of “negative” emotions, it will recommend a section of “advice”, with the aim that they can carry out activities that favor social skills, interaction or increase their network of friends and the performance of activities that they enjoy, in addition to the option of contacting a psychologist.
This is considered necessary since, according to advice offered by the WHO, they are among the main recommendations to prevent depression and suicide, as well as the management of symptoms.
The activities that we recommend will be obtained directly from other networks such as Meet up, local events organized by the local government, Facebook events from your friends and local businesses by google maps; users will find them without having to travel long distances to get the help they need. Solving the third cause of the problem directly.
If psychological help is needed, we seek to support ourselves with companies like Doctoralia, which offer virtual consultations with specialists in the field; bringing users who require it directly from our platform, in a 100% confidential and secure way.
Therefore, our approach can be summarized as follows:
- To raise awareness about the importance of mental health without being intrusive.
- To make the end user aware of their own emotions.
- To offer a free tool to express themselves in an innovative way on social networks.
- To bring the end user closer to activities that they enjoy.
- To bring the end user closer to recreational activities offered by local businesses, government or events near them.
- To approach professional help if necessary.
All this, in a safe and trustworthy space without stigmatizing anyone.
What sets us apart?
We aren’t expressively an emotional support system nor are we just a phrase generator or mood tracking app. We combine mood tracking with phrase generation to help you take care of your mental health without necessarily thinking that you need to specifically focus on taking care of your mental health.
Why? Because many people do not realize they need assistance or directly do not believe they require aid. A person who does not seek out or directly believe they need aid will unlikely search for psychological aid or even an emotional support app.
With Fruitful Life, if negative emotions continue over a period of one week or longer, first the user will be made aware that feeling bad all the time isn’t usual. Afterward, different activities close by where the user is located, including psychological aid, will be recommended.
By doing so, we aim to assist local businesses offering classes like language or dance lessons, and users won’t have to worry about traveling long distances to engage in enjoyable activities listed. This was based on recommendations from the World Health Organization to prevent depression.
User feedback in Numbers:
Actually the prototype has at least 20 total users with 2 administrator / developer accounts. The prototype has also created 41 images and phrases.
The emotions detected were:
- 15 from Happiness.
- 8 from Neutral (no emotion).
- 8 from Surprise.
- 4 from Sadness.
- 4 from Disgust.
- 2 from Fear.
- 0 from Anger.
We also did some surveys and applied analysis over them.
This are the results:
- The average punctuation of 9.3 / 10.
- They highlighted the words: reach, idea, help,
- Their fears are into false positiveness, to create false beliefs, and usage.
Highlighted comments:
In summary they talk about this topics:
- Innovative and practical.
- Wish i had it when I had depression.
- It is a free and intuitive tool.
- Teaches that Mental Health problems are not taboo.
One user says:
“Porque la app por si sola es divertida y si te ayuda a saber que estado de ánimo tienes, pues muchísimo mejor. Haber sido hija de una mamita con depresión, da mucho gusto que alguien haga algo al respecto. Que de manera personal e intima sepas que pasa contigo es muy bueno ya que no todos pueden o quieren pagar un psicólogo. Felicidades 👏.
They mention that they had their parents with depression and they are happy someone is doing something about it, mostly because not always people have money to pay a psychologist.
Another person says:
“Porque es algo que me hubiera gustado que existiera durante el periodo que tuve depresión, quizá me hubiera ayudado a detectar mejor los datos de alarma rojos, y buscar apoyo pronto.”
They mention that they had depression and were diagnosed with it. They would have liked to have a tool like this before they had to ask for help soon.
Extra insights:
We also had a conversation with one of our users which is a psychologist, he resides in Japan and talks about 3 main core aspects:
- People who are feeling stressed and anxious are oftenly not paying attention to their situation and triggers later a “slow slide into depression”.
- People with depression do not feel anything, and are most likely to not have enough energy to use the app or do anything at all.
- The period in between starting into depression and having a deep depression state (that could last for years), people can have enough energy to try to kill themselves. We would need to act before this happens.
Actual Status
Currently we are lacking of resources to make this project a reality. We participated in a hackathon in order to raise founds but only got to semifinals.
We require to raise funds, by any means. If you are interested in helping us to make this a reality, please help us showing support down in the comments, even if you got no money to support the project, sharing will make a huge difference. Let’s be the solution Mexican youth needs. Thank you.
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