Real mentors, real healing
One of the team members has seen patients in the clinic struggling to find other people dealing with depression to connect with. This leads to prolonged depressive episodes that can be prevented with communication between patients who currently have depression with those who have worked to overcome it.
EmpowerMent is a smartphone and web application that helps to connect patients who have been screened by their doctors as having "overcome" depression (mentors) with patients who are currently diagnosed with depression (mentees). The apps match mentors and mentees based on similarity and preferences from both parties.
We initially had a lot of trouble coming up with a project idea. After bouncing around many ideas and conducting hours of research, we settled on creating a patient mentorship program for those who have been diagnosed with depression. The economic burden of depression alone — including workplace costs, direct costs and suicide-related costs — was $210.5 billion in 2010. This mental health disorder also affects a large proportion of Americans. 1 in 13 Americans over the age of 12 is diagnosed with depression and there are many more who go undiagnosed. In particular, 12.9% of women between the age of 40 and 59 are diagnosed with this condition. Clearly a huge problem, it seemed obvious to help patients diagnosed with this disease cut down the time that they have to live with this condition.
We made both a web and iOS application.
Depression is a very common and often medication makes patients feel worse.
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