BACKGROUND
 As a university we are committed to the health and wellbeing of its students.
 The Student Wellbeing Team (SWS) are constantly trying to increase the accessibility of the service and foster relations with academic units.
 This pilot project enabled us to develop effective technology to assist and compliment the ongoing work of SWS. It was also a way of building a relationship with the department of computer science in a way that had not been done before.

 CBT is a therapy of choice for many common mental health difficulties experienced by students.
 SWS currently provide 1:1 , Computerised and group therapy using CBT.
 OFCOM identified that 92% of adults in the UK own / use a mobile phone (2012 figures). Likelihood that this % higher in student population.
 Proposal would see CBT techniques become more easily available to students via their mobile devices in the form of an APP.
 Enable students to access evidence based techniques at a time when they most need them, enabling them to continue with studies.

 The pilot focused on the CBT Technique; Cognitive restructuring.
 APP would look at ways of challenging negative cognitions in the “here and now” .

 Daniel Jamieson
 David Easton
 Patrick McCorry

Who was involved along the way?
The Computing
Science department
Made sure the team had all the resources we needed to work at our best.
The Therapist
Gave us invaluable help on getting accurate CBT methods in the app.
The Students
Gave us important feedback to make it more accessible to our target audience.
Along the way we had a lot of help…

Client is given a document to fill in during their free time

So how does this app benefit others?

To solve many problems in one…
Allow students to record their thoughts at any time and place
Improve communication between students and therapist
Improve the support available to clients

• Users can record important events at any time or place – as it is instantly accessible on their smartphone
• Users can record as many records as they like, and access them wherever they are
• Able to transfer their records to a therapist during meeting

• New relationship between Comp Sci &
Wellbeing service,
• Application works!
• New skills for the developers involved,
• Future expansion is possible (e.g. analyse records and prompt better thought challenges)

Thank you very much for listening!