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Two high school students from different states teamed up to create a smartphone app that helps young people become more aware of their feelings and prevent mental health crises.
Feel Now: A new app by Two Minnesota teens for teens to cope with mental health issues (Photo: innohealthmagazine)
How does the app work?
Appropriate for adolescents, the Feel Now application provides individualized feedback and resources and facilitates emotion monitoring. One to five stars indicate the intensity of various emotions, including happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety, which users may select.
To assist the user in managing their emotions, the application subsequently furnishes them with affirmations, guidance, and hyperlinks to pertinent articles or videos.
A user’s indication of suicidal or self-harming thoughts triggers the activation of the application’s “crisis mode” function. Additionally, the application connects them promptly via text or phone to a trained crisis counselor to notify their emergency contacts.
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Why was the app created?
Taara Verma, a senior at Edina High School in Minnesota, and Siena Pradhan, a junior at Concord Academy in Massachusetts, created the app. They met online through a group called Girls Who Code, whose goal is to get more women interested in technology.
Verma and Pradhan said their mental health concerns and those of their peers—who were also coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, academic pressure, and other issues—inspired them.
They said they wanted to make an app that would meet the wants and preferences of young people, who often have trouble getting mental health care because of shame and other issues. For Verma, “We wanted to make something that was fun and interesting; it was free; and it was easy to use.”
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