Two mobile apps for patients suffering from chronic mental illness and their caretakers have been developed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi.
Cases of anxiety and depression in the country have increased since the pandemic started. Hence, seeing these two mobile apps have been developed by AIIMS to deal with severe mental illness for patients suffering from chronic mental illness and for those who got the first episode of such symptoms.
The two apps – ‘Shaksham’ and ‘Disha’ – are for both who undergoes first such episode of symptoms and for those having a severe mental illness.
A senior psychiatrist at AIIMS Mamta Sood, told IANS, “We have developed two mobile apps — Shaksham and Disha — to deal with mental illness.” The Shaksham app is for the ones who are suffering from chronic mental illness, while the Disha app will benefit persons who undergo first such episode of symptoms, she added.
In collaboration with the computer science departments of Indraprastha Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the University of Warwick, UK these both apps were developed. The project was funded by the National Institute of Health Research, UK.
“The apps will be available for free public use from January next year. We are more concerned about the patient data to be used in the apps and once the data restoration is secured, we will launch it by January next year,” Sood said.
“The apps will also send reminders to the caregivers for medicines and other requirements of the patients,” she added.
When questioned about the mental problems faced by people during the ongoing pandemic Sood said that research conducted by AIIMS on the healthcare workers has revealed that 50 per cent of the healthcare workforce are facing symptoms like anxiety, depression and stress.
However, she added that having such symptoms and having the disease are different, as symptoms do not affect the patients, while disease affects all.