Hi All,

I'm new to this group, but having browsed the archives alone, I'm unsure if there's been a conversation on the topic.  The topic of providing some design literacy when seeking a basis for conversation with people engage aspects of their health through designed interactions with technology.  And also a basis for communicating effectively with in interdisciplinary team, as is perhaps necessary within the health care domain.

There is considerable scope for technology in the service of mental and emotional wellbeing.  This particular area of health care requires a lot of attention, both when considering the uses of technology within mental health health care delivery setting and practice, and also importantly developing ways that help people actively engage their mental wellbeing as pro-actively.  Mental wellbeing can seem like the forgotten area of health care, though our psychological experiences impact in every area of our lives, and wellbeing.

There is some awareness of how technology could play a helpful role.  But how exactly has not really explored meaningfully.  In generating some momentum a lot of conversations need to happen.  Some of which are happening, but many of which have yet to happen.  And certainly Mental Health 2.0 is a challenging area that needs a lot more attention.  With many more of these discussions needed just to understand the scope, before even imagining any plausible solutions and services, and of course from the design perspective difficult to find.

I was recently involved in one discussion bringing together the various perspectives concerned with social media and mental wellbeing - personal perspectives of users of mental health services, health and social care professionals, technical and non-technical audience.  Leading up to the event part of what I considered is finding a means of from the design perspective that could make an impact to the discussion, and further provide some way for uniting perspectives and framing the discussions.  This might be the general challenge in creating the conditions for interdisciplinary working, and collaboration.  Importantly in any of  these discussions the views of those who are using services, or are actively engaging their psychological wellbeing, is perhaps the most important - though creating engagement here is a complex and delicate challenge.  Psychological interventions are person-centred in unique ways distinct from other areas of health care services.  This chimes well with user-centred, though here in the UK there are some discussion along the lines of exploring ways of understanding and quantifying recovery, for service funding purposes.

In approaching this discussion I felt some orientation of some framing design concepts would be most helpful.  Though the design concepts provide below can be critiqued in many ways, what I hope to be able to explore with the discussions here are;

-  Understanding what people's stories and needs for their own wellbeing is essential.  Are there any pros & cons when introducing design concepts?

- Is there any established practice or guidance (in health care design) that might help in determining a workable balance point, and what sorts of design literacy/orientation is need at advancing points along the process.

Below is an excerpt from a blog post leading up to the event ( full pre and post event reflections can be http://wellbeinghq.tumblr.com).  I hope these questions are relevant and would be very interested in your perspectives and experiences.

Excerpt is as follows.  Hope all is good.

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Having taken a moment to consider this, the two building blocks I when trying to put together some meaning about the web and my mental and emotional wellbeing are: needs and social objects.

Basic Language of Needs

In most things the language of need is fundamental.  Technology based services, and other products and services, must meet some sort of need in order to be effective.  So understanding need is the starting point when designing new services.  Though I tend not to explicitly declare that “a need is being met” by a certain activity, rather it is implicit and gets out of the way as I engage the activity within a natural flow.

…and Social Objects

Along side need it’s also helpful to think about social objects.  Social objects form the basis around which interactions happen.  For example in photo sharing the object is a photo.  In video sharing that can be a video. etc.  And around these objects we can engage with one another in ways that make sense.  That can most often be seen in commenting and discussions around the object, or sharing the object, etc, all the other meaningful things we like to do.  There are countless ways in which we can relate with one another around an object.  The better the design of these technologies, the better a need is serviced and the better we seem relate through these interactions.  For example, if you like music I’m sure you have your favourite music site or app.  Consider for a moment why you prefer one music service over another.

There must be many more building blocks that might be helpful, but starting with these, what does the web means to my wellbeing.

As social animal

This perhaps is the most general relationship I have with the web, something every internet user can relate to in some way.  The need here really is the need to feel a connection with other people and also to stay current with happenings in our world.  Nothing revolutionary here.  And simple to state.  But something that has deep implication to my sense of wellbeing.  This is a catch all need, and there are a lot of services and applications out there that aim to service this need.  Whether at a computer or on the move, we are never far from the people and happenings that matter to us.  I always appreciate getting a messages, update, or even social signals depending on how you think about it, that tells me that someone has taken the time to contact me, and being part of my day by day experiences.  There might be a lot still to be said about the connection between receiving signals and our overall wellbeing.

There are many Web 2.0 services based around various social objects that do a good job of meeting many of our basic need to feel close to others, and in the loop with the latest happenings.  I’m sure you use several of them day by day; status updating, debating, photo sharing, listening to recommended music, catching up with your news feed.  Etc.  These online interactions seem to be a natural part of it all.

I as service user

My life and wellbeing are not two separate things, and many of the day to day activities I engage in online contribute in some way to my overall wellbeing.  However, there are more specific needs that I have as someone with lived experience that require me to search beyond immediate online interactions.  Many of these needs are social in nature, but require engaging others with similar experiences and perspectives.  Daily experiences, circumstances, maintaining wellbeing, finding a way toward recovery, feeling useful to oneself and being independent amongst the many topics and issues explored and discussed.  All of these tend to be within the context peer support, and self management.  Again, nothing revolutionary here, but deeply affecting given that experiences of mental illness can devastate a person self esteem, contributing to the feeling of isolation.  It does not have to be revolutionary to be deeply affecting.  Basic needs are universal.

Even when servicing needs as service user, I often find myself engaging some of those needs in groups, pages and communities within the main social platforms.  Relating this to the idea of a social objects, the main social platforms are so useful, and flexible, because the they do social objects well, and support rich interactions around them.  Keeping in mind that we as service users have the same need to connect.  But the web is a big place.  And outside of the main social platforms there are many other platforms, services and communities that are for meeting those specific needs.  These other platforms are founded upon much of the same mechanisms (we status update, we comment, discuss and support, and we share things that are relevant and interesting) but membership implies some shared experiences, and that in of itself is valuable.

As research interest

From a research perspective needs and social objects are a good way of framing the sense making of these online experiences.  I feel that understanding need is  the starting point in the imagining of any helpful technology.  And in developing a solution, especially a social media or social network type solution, the design will only feel right if interactions are based around the right social objects.  Though I’ve not listed them here and only outlined a couple of guiding considerations, the details of what people, including myself, actually do (not what they think they do) as part of maintaining good wellbeing is important to understand.

Putting this into context, one important open question is how do we design technology for our psychological and mood experiences.

Starting with needs. Being able to listen to, and in a sense discover, your own need and the needs of others is not trivial.  As we often the need is bound up within the activity and thus not made explicit, if indeed in all cases we are actually aware of what might be helpful. I feel that within the context of mood or psychological experiences the essence of the need is found in understanding what we do to cope with, manage and overcome tough experiences and moods, and not needs in terms of “I need to feel happier” etc which though true does not provide much foot hold. For example when in a certain mood I need to be able to identify the mood, understand what brought about the mood, I need to express the mood to others, I need a way to manage and overcome the mood. Etc. Again these might not be explicitly, but important to understand never the less

Equally as challenging is doing something with that understanding and suggesting or developing solutions. If the idea of social objects is guiding the design of social media or networking for mental wellbeing, what might the social object of mood and psychological look like? How do we design a set of interactions around a social object in such a way that meets the sort of needs outlined above, e.g. the need to express and share the experience of my mood with others? These are important open questions. And as we are better able to find answers to these sorts of questions, and implement them, we move closer toward technology truly in the service of our mental health and wellbeing. The use of which, will be helpful, enjoyable, and simply make sense.

We all have some sort of role in making these sorts of technologies happen.  One way is through discussion of our experiences, from all perspectives, that result in a clear picture of what might be helpful.  The design of technology does not live in a void.  That’s why I’m looking forward to the Blogs for Breakfast event.  In honesty, there there should be more event like this.  We have a vibrant online/social media mental health community in the UK.  Wouldn’t it be good for us all to have more such face time.