MENHIR · Mental health monitoring through interactive conversations

Mental health monitoring through interactive conversations

MENHIR aims at engaging people in the management of self-care and providing a more flexible, immediate and sustained complement to under pressure mental health services. MENHIR chatbot technology provides symptom and mood management, personalised support and motivation, coping strategies, signposting to online resources and complementing the support received by local services. The technology developed will be able to process emotional and mood patterns from different aspects of the voice recorded. This information facilitates rapid intervention and appropriate feedback such as prompts and supportive messages. It will also generate personalised conversations with the users to motivate and engage them at any time and especially in between visits to their local services. The limitations of previous technology are the high dropout rates due in part to a lack of interactive features and appropriate prompts, difficulties for people with low levels of technological literacy and failure to provide human support. The MENHIR chatbot technology aims to address these difficulties being more usable and intuitive since it simulates everyday human to human conversation. The project also generates data on how people with anxiety and depression interact with and respond to this technology, and about the benefits it brings to them. The objectives of MENHIR are to: - Develop new capabilities and skills for MENHIR participants. As a RISE project, our aim is the sharing of knowledge and ideas across countries, sectors and disciplines. MENHIR is creating new opportunities for ICT experts to root technology in a deeper understanding of their prospective users, while psychologists and mental health experts will gain knowledge of the technological tools that can help them improve their clients’ wellbeing. - Establish the strengths, limitations and requirements of mental health chatbots. - Develop the MENHIR chatbot technology collaborating with people who suffer anxiety and/or mild depression. - Understand how users engage with chatbot technology and how it may affect their wellbeing over time.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union