Treatments and Projects
Treatments and Projects
MindTools.io
MindTools.io is a research project that aims to investigate what design aspects make programs more engaging and effective in real world use, and to serve as a new resource for knowledge, experience, and development of digital mental health tools.
The project objectives are: Creating an objective suite of quality measures – developed to incorporate persuasive design, behavior change, and therapeutic alliance – for the evaluation of eHealth interventions. Examining these measures validity in predicting which programs eventually become more successful. Providing stakeholders a step-by-step guidance about the quality evaluation of e-mental health apps, and how to design successful products. Objectively rate programs and present our findings in order to help the public make educated decisions when choosing digital tools.
Digital parent training aimed at treating child's disruptive behaviors
The project involves several digital interventions aimed to support parents in the process of overcoming their child’s behavior problems. We investigate both guided and unguided interventions aimed at reaching a large number of families in need in a cost-effective way. The project involves investigating the impact of product design, content tailoring, and different therapeutic processes on clinical outcomes.
Comprehensive Mental Health Assessment Suite
The lab tests “What do I have?” It is a complete, publicly available online mental health assessment battery. The battery is designed to screen individuals for common mental illnesses and assess emotional well-being factors. The assessment process takes approximately 15-25 minutes, and participants receive feedback on the results as well as suggestions for future steps.
The project aims to research factors related to treatment preferences and examine the role of online mental health assessment and feedback as a single-session intervention. Additionally, we aim to explore the ways in which such an available tool promotes an individual’s pathway to evidence-based mental health support.
Online emotional support delivered by trained volunteers
Technology could provide scalable methods to train and then engage non-professionals with those who need emotional support. In this way technology is used to enhance human supportive contact when needed, rather than replacing or minimizing it. Dr. Baumel studied the use of technology to screen, train, and engage volunteers to support people with mental illness using an online platform – 7 Cups of Tea (7Cups). 7Cups trains volunteers (i.e., listeners) to provide free online emotional support through a chat messaging system and then engages them with interested users. The project included developing computerized training for volunteers, and examining program’s effects on both native 7Cups users and patients – who were referred to use 7Cups as an adjunct to treatment.
