Mental well-being makes an important contribution to the quality of people’s lives and consists of personal happiness and the absence of psychological distress(1). Protective factors such as problem solving skills, resilience and the ability to cope with stress can be improved (2) (e.g., programs, education, self development, etc). Increasing a person’s ability to regulate emotions may increase their resilience which can help protect against mental illness.
There has been an increasing number of self-help resources especially online mental health interventions with the advancement of technology and a reported increasing use and efficacy of psychoeducational websites and interactive self-guided interventions for a variety of mental health issues(3).
Our work at Minda has consistently demonstrated that people living with intellectual disability are adopting technology at an increasing rate. However we have continued to find that many Apps designed regarding basic information (emotions, support networks, etc) are unsuitable for adults with an intellectual disability or low level literacy skills as they either are too complex in their written language or contain pictures of children and school based examples.
To meet this need we have developed an interactive learning tool geared toward supporting emotion education and regulation. The App aims to facilitate both discussion between a user and their support person/s and to also be a reference tool for the user to increase their independence.
The app focuses on four emotions; happy, sad, scared and angry. Within each emotion are several preloaded support strategies that the person may find beneficial (these can be hidden from view). The user, with support if necessary, is then encouraged to customise the app to suit their own strengths, interests, and supports.
In example, if going for a walk to a nearby park assists the user when they are angry then they can take a photo of that specific park and upload it. Later when they select the ‘angry’ option a photo prompt of going to that park will be one of the suggested supports. If the user likes to talk with a specific person (or more) when they are sad then photographs of those specific people can be uploaded under the ‘sad’ icon and will be prompted when that emotion is selected.
For those people who are able to use the telephone, there is a customisable voice-over phone number that can be entered/ accessed.
Finally, we developed a My Feelings Companion Tool app which details additional basic information regarding mental wellbeing, mental illness, support networks/ resources, how to ‘get more’ out of the My Feelings app, and the terms and conditions of use. It is recommended that a person supporting the user also reviews that App.
1. Conder JA, Mirfin-Weitch, BF & Gates, S (2015). Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 28(6), 572-582.
2. Mann JJ, Apter A, Bertolote J, Beautrais A, Currier D, Haas A… Hendin H (2005). JAMA 294(16), 2064 – 2074.
3. Barak A, & Grohol JM (2011). Journal of Technology in Human Services, 29(3), 155-196.