Mental Mind

Jerome Tso Wing Huen - BCM 302 Advanced Digital Artefact - A3 Digital Artefact

Throughout this course of Advanced Digital Artifact, each of us was required to create an original antique in any electronic device, either fitting in with the trend of the current society or fulfilling people’s needs. In our case, Anderson and I are creating one for a specific group of people with several mental health issues, and providing assistance for them to tackle their problems. Not just for people with mental issues, our digital artifact is also user-friendly for professionals, so that users can keep in contact with them to maintain the progress of healing their mental health issues. For instance, the name of the digital artifact is called Mental Mind. 

The reason for selecting this particular issue for the topic of my digital artifact is not just to enhance my discovery of mental health, but also to fulfill the needs of patients with several mental health issues, since it is common in Hong Kong.

According to (Wing-man, 2017):

“With a population of 7.3 million, mental health problems are not uncommon in Hong Kong. For a high-tempo, action-packed and densely-populated city like Hong Kong, the challenges we are facing are immense and multi-faceted.” 

It shows that there are a variety of mental health issues that some people diagnose, sometimes it could be either a single or more than one issue, which not many people have discovered their problem in an earlier period or not from others.

Moreover, some people as patients are not willing to receive treatment.

As mentioned by Mindhk:

“An estimated 1 in 7 people in Hong Kong will experience a common mental disorder at any given time. Of those experiencing a mental health disorder, three-quarters will not seek professional help. Many will continue to suffer in isolation as a result of stigma, feelings of shame, lack of awareness about their condition, and a shortage of accessible professional support.” 

It expressed that without receiving treatment or assistance, not just personal lives would be harmed, but also misunderstandings from others, whether they are part of the same community as regular people would have. In addition, the worst case is that some patients would remain unhealed with several mental health disabilities for the rest of their lives. 

Taking me as an example, I did not know that I was not diagnosed with any mental health issues until my class teachers noticed the change in my academic results and behavior in the fifth grade of high school. Then, they transferred my case to a discipline-led and recommended me to see a psychiatrist. After getting treatment from the mental health clinic, I was aware of my condition, as it affected my relationships with my family and friends. 

On the contrary, mental health is one of the concerns that need to be considered in society, not just the people they trust and professionals, but patients also need to learn to solve their problems by themselves. In other words, that was where we introduced our digital artifact to tackle mental health, Mental Mind. 

Before starting the creation of Mental Mind, Anderson and I were making our digital artifact individually, I went with the choice of mental health, while Anderson chose automatic vehicles. Also, my original topic was not about mental health, but instead, it was about autism, since I needed to be specific on which kind of mental health issue I was delivering. Afterward, Anderson’s topic was denied, and he was assigned to create a digital artifact with me, which I agreed to do.

After Anderson joined in, I explained my plans and concepts to him, and he found it fascinating. However, he pointed out that with one mental health would be simple for patients to seek assistance, by calling professionals, such as psychiatrists and mental therapists from either a psychological clinic or a family service center, to make an appointment for their illnesses, so he suggested that I should expand my point of view towards autism into all kinds of mental health issues. 

According to Mok:

“The study, weighted with reference to the city’s demographics, suggested that 16.6 per cent of young people have experienced at least one of five mental disorders: depression, anxiety, panic disorder, bipolar disorder or psychotic disorder. Adding in people who suffered from other disorders – such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – the weighted prevalence rose to 25 per cent, said Eric Chen, chair professor of HKU’s Department of Psychiatry.”

This study expresses that the term “young people” refers to kids, teenagers, and preadults, because they are students from elementary school, high school, and university respectively. Also, stress is the main cause of their mental illness, not just from their relationship with families, but also academic studies and examinations, as they need to strive for satisfactory results in better future paths. At the same time, getting insufficient rest or breaks would steadily reduce immunity and unstable emotional balance, which were the causes of their different mental health illnesses. Afterward, their parents or friends may not have noticed either from the beginning or time after time until the problem eventually worsens.

Although our target audience of Mental Mind is students in a range between elementary school and university, even adults also suffer from mental illnesses. Based on the Equal Opportunities Commission: “Given that the lowest scores were found among people aged 35-54, many of whom face intense pressure from having to juggle work and family.” Through these statistics, it express that even adults have been diagnosed with similar illnesses, but not as too serious as younger people.

After listening to Anderson’s suggestion, providing a variety of assistance to treat patients with a wide range of mental illnesses would be beneficial, instead of autism.  

While brainstorming ideas on the type, I wanted to create a digital artifact in the form of a virtual meeting platform, which would be a handy tool for users who are patients with multiple mental health illnesses. This is because having physical communication can express their emotions smoothly, if users just read the messages through words without detailed instructions, they may not understand properly what the mental therapists are expressing. On the contrary, meeting with mental therapists through a virtual meeting platform can not just make their plans flexible, whether some users are unavailable to have physical consultations at the family service center or clinic, but also create a space to express themselves comfortably. 

For the structure, we were taking a variety of virtual meeting platforms as references, such as Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams. We used these platforms for online classes during the pandemic that has spread worldwide for the past three to four years, which affected all physical courses in school, and the lives of students and teachers. Besides, even attending appointments for mental therapists were also made in virtual meeting platforms back then, which gave me the idea of creating Mental Mind. 

In the earlier stage, despite the draft being erased after consulting with the professor and my slow thinking skills, I was able to retrieve the outline of what would look like on the home screen of Mental Mind. In the beginning, Mental Mind was meant to be used on tablets and computers, and now it is fully operational on smart mobile phones as well, compatible with both iOS and Android electronic devices. In the original version, there were eight spaces to form the outline of the home screen, which was flexible for us to arrange the name, logo, calendar, and other functionalities in any position. In addition, the service name of Mental Mind was placed on the top left corner, with a calendar below. I wanted to have a calendar in Mental Mind, because this can assist users in checking their upcoming appointments as reminders. However, it is used only for mental health-related appointments. 

On the right, there are four different functionalities placed next to the calendar, one for each space. There are join ‘Meeting’, ‘Book Appointment’, ‘Article Library’, and ‘Contact’ respectively. Most of the four functionalities are commonly used and found in any virtual meeting platform. In this case, I wanted to set up a virtual meeting platform with functionalities or services that a regular clinic and family service center offer, so that patients could feel comfortable when having online consultations with mental therapists. Apart from joining the meeting, ‘Book Appointment’, ‘Article Library’, and ‘Contact’ functionalities are something a normal virtual meeting platform does not have. User can book their appointments on the dates based on the availabilities of the mental therapists, a library that features informative articles about curing different mental illnesses, and contact information of all mental therapists.

Although the idea of the original draft was as well-organized as planned, Anderson joined in and gave me suggestions to change Mental Mind even better. As I mentioned earlier, he suggested that we offer Mental Mind to patients with all kinds of mental illnesses, not just autism, so that they would receive a variety of assistance to cure their respective problems. 

In the Project Beta, Anderson and I had made a plan for the sequence of Mental Mind, to show the flow when users applied the application on their smart mobile phones, tablets, and computers. 

In the first picture, it shows the flow chart of the setup sequence. For instance, Mental Mind will be launched after the application is installed on their electronic devices. Afterward, it would be transported to the login section, where users can either log in or set up an account. At the same time, they need to input their personal information if they were using Mental Mind for the first time, both their age and the type of their mental health illness(es), verifying the topic or theme of their related problems. After the account is fully set up, they are ready to use Mental Mind.

The second picture shows the flow of the base bar. In addition, it is located at the top of the screen of the home page, with three functionalities as icons. The first functionality is a search bar, not just inputting keywords, the search results can also be filtered so that users can focus on the results on their main problems. Also, they can surf a list of specialist therapists, with ratings of five stars, recommendations from specialists, and payments for individual appointments. Most importantly, their availabilities are provided either online, physically, or even both. 

Besides, a variety of languages are offered for users in their personal preferences. Not just languages, they can also adjust the audio and video camera on their electronic devices. If they were using Mental Mind at night or wanted to reduce the harm to their eye health, there is an option to switch the background to dark mode. And of course, there is an icon that represents “Profile”, as users can update their profile in the settings. Lastly, Anderson and I had concerns about the usage, as not all patients could understand how to use Mental Mind properly. To solve this, a simple mode is made for switching the usage of the application which is ease of use and less potential to trigger patients. 

Lastly, it expresses the basic functions of Mental Mind.

As shown earlier, the base bar is one of the functionalities, with a search bar, settings, and profile. Also, if users have upcoming meetings to attend, all of their appointments will be marked in the calendar and notifications will be sent to their electronic devices as reminders. 

Moreover, a button named “Join Meeting” is featured. Patients and mental therapists will join the online meeting based on their destinated appointments. During the meeting, they can adjust the volume on the microphone and speakers, with a choice of turning on and off the camera. Also, all of their online meetings will be dropped down into notes, generated by A.I., so that they can revise their previous conversations, and face recognition if some of them do not want to show themselves to the camera. 

Before the meeting, patients can book a meeting with the mental therapists through a “Book Meetings” functionality. After inputting the type of their mental illness, they will select a specialist therapist based on the rating. Additionally, there are two different forms of consultation, either online or physically. After selecting the available date(s) and period(s), a confirmation email is made after payment is made.

References

Mental Health in Hong Kong. (2024). Retrieved from mindhk: https://www.mind.org.hk/mental-health-in-hong-kong/

Mok, L. (2023 , May 12). Up to 25% of young Hongkongers have suffered from mental disorders, HKU research reveals. Retrieved from Hong Kong Free Press: https://hongkongfp.com/2023/05/12/up-to-25-of-young-hongkongers-suffered-from-mental-disorders-hku-research-reveals/

Wing-man, D. K. (2017). Mental Health Review Report. Hong Kong: Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administation Region Government.