Supportive, Conversation-Based Engagement — GroupSesh

With 15K members in our Facebook group, Subtle Asian Mental Health Support, we wanted to create a supportive, conversation-based tool to encourage genuine interaction and engagement.

Inspiration

Our team created the group Subtle Asian Mental Health Support on Facebook. When we had first started, our group chats had high participation rates and consistent engagement around the clock from our members. However, as the group became larger and the chats grew bigger, we realized that participation rates dramatically decreased.

As we approached 15,000 members in our group, our engagement rates were continuing to decline. As we thought about our situation, we hypothesized that social isolation and not feeling connected to the chat groups was the primary problem, so we wanted to develop something that would support our group and continue to provide the genuine interaction that our group had before.

One of our goals for HackMentalHealth 2019 was to win the HopeLab prize as well, so we believed that this problem could address the issues of social isolation among young people. Studies show that social media usage can increase depression and anxiety for people, therefore, inducing social isolation. However, if we can foster an open and supportive community, we can curate small focus groups while utilizing social media and the accessibility of social media.

What it does

GroupSesh is a conversation-based app that gives you a space to share your experiences and thoughts around mental health in group chat sessions.

Smaller, intimate, safe groups help you build trust and belonging through understanding and support with every member.

The initial onboarding experience lets you select mental health topics that you are most interested in discussing, as well a predominant “role” you wish to have in group discussions.

What are roles? Conversations in GroupSesh are structured for individuals of varied experiences with mental health. We created the notion of “roles” for groups to help make it clear for everyone in the session.

Conversation Starter: A moderator of sorts for the conversation. They help with introductions and start the conversation. They make sure everyone feels comfortable and safe.

Supporter: Others that may have had similar experiences or are dealing with the topic at hand. They engage in the group and are there to comfort and support others.

Friend: Those that are close by being connected to loved ones that may be dealing with similar things to the topic. They are there to learn and understand more, and ask appropriate questions.

Mental health professionals will have access to a unique area of the experience where they can create and manage programs for users to join. In this space you will have a more structured session with a professional perspective.

The chatroom allows for text, audio, and video-based conversations to better facilitate conversations around the topic. Each member can decide how they would like to join and participate. There are conversational tools that can help in the discussions – text/image polls, helpful resources, and professional contacts.

As we move forward with the product, we look to build and improve-on an experience that makes having conversations around mental health easier, more open and destigmatized. We want people to feel comfortable with sharing their stories and have a community that supports them so they know that they are not alone.

How we built it

We built a prototype as a full-stack javascript application and used a javascript framework called ReactJS and using the materialized UI of CSS framework. The backend uses express websockets. For our user interface and experience, we’re using Figma to show the visual design of our app.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was trying to narrowing down the idea. At first, we had a very broad and abstract concept that was cluttered and had too many options. As we kept adding ideas it became more and more convoluted. We eventually realized that the core idea of our app is to create an intimate and safe environment that facilitates human connection and sharing their mental health experiences.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We’re proud that we were able to create a viable concept despite it being the first hackathon for the vast majority of our team. We’re also really proud that we were able to establish good team chemistry within such a short amount of time.

What we learned

We learned that getting focused quickly and having a singular clear goal are the most important things. It helps to prevent being carried away by extraneous ideas, no matter how good they may be. Getting the core idea down is much more important than trying to add more features than we can fully think through and develop. This is our first hackathon ever, so we’re humbled by the fact that we were even finalists.

What’s next for GroupSesh

We’re hoping fully develop this by the end of the year as Asian Mental Health International. In partnering with Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) for future projects, so we hope that this app will make its way into clinical applications in the near future.

Our team:

• Alex Nguyen (B.A. Economics, SFSU); Co-founder @ Asian Mental Health International
• Justin Cruz (B.A., Software Engineer); Co-founder @ Asian Mental Health International
• Jedidiah Chun (M.S. Mental Health Clinician); Director of Community Programming @ Asian Mental Health International
• Joanna Chang (B.A., UX Designer)
• Minnie Chen (Student)
• Tanu Paradeth (Visual Designer)