A mobile-based system for mental health patients in Kenyan Universities.
Date
2021
Authors
Fatma, Hilali Ali
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Mental health is a very crucial part of a person’s health, as it accounts to a person’s
peace of mind. Mental includes a person’s emotions, psychological and social
wellbeing. Mental health is what majorly determines how a person performs in every
part of his life be it at work, at home or with his friends because logically a person can
not be at his optimum productivity when he is sad / frustrated or mentally disturbed. It
is very unfortunate that this crucial part of a persons health is looked down upon and
not given the importance that it deserves making it very difficult for patients to get the
help that they need when they need it. Some of the major difficulties that mental health
patients face include discrimination and stigmatization from the society whereby these
people are regarded as weak. Stigmatization and Discrimination is the main reason as
to why Mental health patients refuse to see a specialists under the excuse of putting up
a strong façade in the society. Other challenges that mental health patients face include
lack of adequate time in the context that university students are usually busy with
classes. The few mental health patients who eventually make it to see the specialist,
there is no well-defined way for the psychiatrist to follow up on how the patient is
doing until the next session.
As clearly explained above, mental health patients face several challenges on their
journey to get treatment. To solve these problems, a mobile mental health information
system is proposed. The system is able to facilitate the treatment sessions between the
doctor and the patient at the comfort of their home. It facilitates the exchange of
prescription and the tracking of the patient’s progress. The system also comprises of a
way to get the patient to reach out for immediate help in case they feel overwhelmed
and want to harm themselves. The system is developed using Java and PHP as the
programming language and MySQL as the database management system, it also uses
firebase to send out push notifications. Laravel framework is used to develop the
backend and Android studio was tool used to develop the frontend of the application.
In conclusion this system is a valuable application in combating mental health illnesses
effectively.
Description
An Information System Documentation Submitted to the School of Computing
and Engineering Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
award of a degree in Bachelor of Business Information Technology
Strathmore University.