Assessment and Improvement of Mental Health

Abstract

Nowadays, the topic of mental health is coming more into focus in society. At the same time, the number of people who use apps on their smartphones grows. Therefore, new possibilities of supporting mental health therapies via mobile apps emerge.

In cooperation with the chair for clinical psychology and psychotherapy, we develop a framework for mobile applications, that can be utilized alongside therapy for different disorders.

At the moment, we work on an app addressing stress. For this app, we focus on integrating biofeedback to give the user feedback about his current stress level. Therefore, the user gets the task of putting himself in a stressful situation and subsequently to apply a relaxation technique. During the exercise, the pulse is measured with the smartphone’s sensors and reported back to the user in order to help him improve his ability to deal with stressful situations.