The Interactions magazine always includes interesting articles for HCI scientists. This month while I was browsing through ACM DL, I came across a very interesting article called "The invisible User" in the last issue of this magazine. Two scientists from Trinity College Dublin talk about their research on technology for mental health care. It is a good article and shows how technology can make difference in people's life. In brief, it presents a number of applications that are developed to support particularly teenagers with mental health disorders and discusses the lessons learnt throughout these projects. I strongly recommend this article.
The Invisible UserThe World Health Organization estimates that approximately one million people per year commit suicide. Mental disorders such as depression are responsible for more than 90 percent of these deaths. In fact, depression is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, and the human and economic cost of mental illness is reaching crisis proportions. The stigma surrounding mental health issues exacerbates the problem, and many people are unable or reluctant to engage in and access effective treatment. Technology can help address these key problems of access and engagement, particularly for younger people. Interaction design has an important role in developing innovative and worthwhile applications that support the user in an effective way. Given the scale of the problem, even small changes in the effectiveness of mental health services could have a big impact.......Full Paper: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1620693.1620697
Full Proceedings: Interactions, Volume 16, Issue 6 (November + December 2009), 2009.
Labels: HCI, interaction, Mental health