Gamification in Mental Healthcare
There is no doubt that we have had decades of research geared at developing new and more effective treatments for mental conditions ranging from autism to anxiety, from schizophrenia to depression and so on. What is rather worrying, however, is that we have very little to show for it. Mental disorders such as these continue to impact on the quality of life of a significant proportion of the population, costing the taxpayer millions of dollars every year. Currently, approximately 90 million Americans, which translates to approximately one-third of the population, suffers from some form of anxiety disorder, yet a majority of these fail to seek out treatment for the same owing to the stigma, burden and cost associated with such evidence-based treatments. Mental health professionals are, thus, focusing their attention towards the development of low-burden, effective interventions for mental illness. Gamification, the introduction of game-like elements in mental health interventions, is one of the newest trends in that direction, and one that experts regard as having significant potential. This text examines the various ways through which gamification has been used to impact mental health outcomes among members of the Millennial Generation, who are also the greatest users of smartphones and other mobile devices. It is intent on showing that if properly-regulated and controlled, gamification could contribute significantly to improved mental health outcomes.
Overview of Gamification in Mental Healthcare
Gamification in mental health basically refers to the strategy of translating or embedding interventions into game formats that could range from animated graphics, to software apps and game-like interfaces accessible through mobile devices. A report by the Pew Research Center estimates that approximately 61% of young persons between the ages of 12 and 30 own a smartphone or some form of mobile device (Chan, Torous, Hinton & Yellowlees, 2014). Of these, 31% use their devices to obtain health information from either online platforms or psychiatric patient networks (Chan et al., 2014). Today, there are numerous apps at the disposal of both patients and healthcare practitioners, and which help in among other key procedures patient record-keeping, decision support systems, patient monitoring and surveillance, health promotion, community mobilization, appointment reminders, and treatment adherence and monitoring. The overriding aim of gamyifing mental health treatments is to increase patient engagement and reduce the stigma associated with treatment appeal. Its use, however, remains limited owing to challenges of accessibility and patient privacy.
Examples of Mental Health Information Obtained through Gamification
As mentioned earlier on in this text, numerous software apps have been developed to improve the mental health of the population. With the help of mobile apps and wearable devices, one can track just about every aspect of their mental health just as much as they can track their physical health. The Recover Record App, for instance, is designed as to send reminders and notifications to patients to enable them cope with their psychological disorders. For people with eating disorders, for instance, the app sends a notification at 5 a.m. everyday reminding them of the need to take breakfast (Arthur, 2015). After eating, the patient then records on their phone what they ate, and how they felt. The procedure is repeated throughout the day, and the app acts like some form of online diary, reminding them in intervals to log her supper or eat a snack (Arthur, 2015). By recording their dietary habits and tendencies, patients are helped to cope effectively with their disorders. Besides Recovery Record, there are numerous other apps used to address a range of mental health issues; some for dealing with anxiety through breathing or meditation techniques, others for tracking mood swings and others specific to bipolar disorders, depression, phobias, and so on. Some of the most popular apps and their specific functions have been discussed in the subsections that follow.
StudentLife: the StudentLife Android App, developed by researchers at Dartmouth College, collects location, audio, and motion data from the sensors of a user's smartphone, draws patterns from the same and uses these to predict and alert users of changes in their mental health (Bolluyt, 2014). Algorithms within the app process the data collected to obtain a clear view of their sleeping patterns communication patterns, the places they visit, their level of physical activity and so on; so if the user begins to show changes in any of these patterns, the app takes these to correlate with changes in stress, loneliness, and depression and notifies the users or their registered caregivers that there could be changes in their mental health (Bolluyt, 2014).
SelfEcho: in addition to apps geared at helping...
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