Mental health disorders among children are described as serious changes in the way children typically learn, behave, or handle their emotions. Which if undetected & untreated, can cause distress and problems getting through the day.
A Growing Problem: One in four 17-19 year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022 - up from one in six in 2021, according to an NHS Digital Report. (BBC News, 30/11/2022)
20% of adolescents may experience a mental health problem in any given year (2)
10% of children and young people (aged 5-16 years) have a clinically diagnosable mental problem (3)
(1) Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R Merikangas KP, Walters EE. (2005). Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replications.
(2) WHO (2003). Caring for Children and Adolescents with mental disorders
(3) Green, H., Mcginnity, A., Meltzer, Ford, T., Goodman, R. 2005 Mental Health of Children and Young People in Great Britain: 2004. Office for National Statistics.
With a customisable avatar, children will be able to customise the Avatar to their hearts content. Meaning that they can choose their own ‘Friend’. Creating an interaction that will be more comfortable for them to open up to. But if that isn’t quite enough, Sherlock the Avatar’s puppy will be running around to, showing off all their playful moves.
Available 24/7/365 days a year
‘My Friend’ will always be there to lend an ear when children need to talk about their issues and worries.
The app will assess and provide appropriate support depending on the issue being discussed. Over time this will allow the Avatar to ‘learn’ more about each individual child through the use of Machine Learning and other AI techniques.
This will allow the Avatar to provide a much greater level of comfort and care advice for the individual child’s needs.
The Avatar will also be utilising sentiment analysis as well as monitoring tone of voice as it reacts and asks questions about what it is hearing.
This allows it to ask questions based on what it hearing, as well as understand what the child is feeling. Which means that if it hears something that doesn’t match with the expected tone or sentiment, it will begin to gently probe deeper with its questions until the problem has been found.
Through the apps learning process, it will flag and communicate with a team of specialist medical professionals. Who will then assess the interactions before communicating with the child’s school councillor.
Which could then lead to in person sessions, individual or accompanied by a parent or guardian, that may be of great benefit to the child’s future wellbeing.
To learn more about the feature of ‘My Friend’. Please click here.
