King's College LondonMonitoring mental health
Working with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at King's College London, Digital Marmalade has produce two different applications, MyHealthE and MyJournE, both of which focus on the monitoring of the mental health of the nations youth.
MyHealthE
Commissioned by King’s College London, myHealthE gives parents or carers a simple online way to track the progress of their child during their treatment with child and adolescent mental health services.
A simpler way
During treatment parents or carers are asked to complete questionnaires so clinicians can measure the effectiveness of the treatment being administered.
Previously, this required the completion and return of a paper questionnaire, which naturally led to questionnaires being left uncompleted or unreturned.
myHealthE allows questionnaires to be completed on any device, at any time, wherever there is an internet connection.
Easy monitoring for parents
Following the initial consultation, parents or carers are invited, by text, to join the system through a simple but secure registration process.
Access to an online portal allows them to complete questionnaires and track their child’s progress throughout the treatment.
Completed questionnaires generate scores against a series of outcomes, and parents or carers can see how these scores compare to the previously completed questionnaire, as well as how these scores have changed over time.
Hassle free for teachers
To get data from a different perspective, myHealthE allows teachers an easy way to complete questionnaires on their students.
All the children in their care are accessible through one login, with automated reminders prompting them when a new questionnaire should be completed.
Reduced workload for clinicians
The amount of general admin for clinicians is greatly reduced through myHealthE.
Reminders to complete questionnaires are automatically distributed by text and email through an integration with the GOV.UK Notify service, at intervals defined through the system by the clinician.
Results from both parents/carers and teachers are compiled and stored in a single secure place and sent straight into the NHS Carenotes database.
The results
As this is clinical research, we can’t share specifics with you until the research is published. What we can say is that the people using myJournE completed significantly more questionnaires than those using the traditional paper method, giving clinicians much more data to work with.
"Over the last two years, Digital Marmalade have become an integral part of the my_HealthE clinical research team. They are professional, responsive and creative. Most important for me is that Jeremy, Andy and Marcus and all the Digital Marmalade group we have worked with have been truly invested in making my_HealthE a successful project. They have gone the extra mile to meet tight budgets, complex NHS operational environments and last minute requests prior to roll out. I cannot recommend them highly enough, and they are a pleasure to work with."
MyJournE
MyJournE is a piece of clinical research funded by the Medical Research Council exploring the ways in which the mental health of students at schools can be surveyed.
A native app available on iOS and Android, myJournE means students can complete mood surveys whenever they feel the need, and also log ‘Diary Events’ - occurrences in day to day life which have impact on mood.
A Digital Marmalade designed character leads the users through the app, giving an identity as well as some warmth and personality to the app.
Wellbeing in education
Through push notifications, students can choose when to receive reminders to log their moods and through the use of context setting questions can review how they feel in different places, with different people and when doing different things.
The app will be used for a fixed time span, and the usability findings will be published and used to shape the next iteration of the app in a wider roll-out. Watch this space!