Smart Communications: Boosting Mental Health Literacy

Abstract

The prevalent public health measures against the spread of the COVID-19 disease like social distancing guidelines are necessary but they can make us feel isolated and lonely. Young people are even more vulnerable. Medical professionals have acknowledged the existence of COVID-induced stress and its insidious creep into the fabric of student life. Sadly, open discussions on mental health issues are often viewed as a form of weakness, if not a taboo, among students. This project aims to describe university students’ thoughts and perceptions of the mobile app (StudyBird) to enhance their learning experience under the social-distancing mandates and beyond. The concept of StudyBird is similar to a taxi-hiring app that connects randomly available students (both local and international students) to perform their shared social/sports/learning activities together. Once students shared their locations and activities, the system will automatically match the closest students with similar shared activities together. Our app promotes and allows students from diverse cultural backgrounds to meet and mingle with one another. The preliminary results from the three test groups (n=29) indicated positive user feedback, especially about enlarging their social networks in their trusted environment, i.e. our campus. Activity matching in the app and the stability of our app are yet to improve.