The Effectiveness of a Well-Designed Mobile Application for Patients

Technology is deeply embedded within the day to day life of society. However, as developments in technology take place at an ever-rapid rate, it's becoming more and more challenging to pinpoint how it exactly influences humans, and how it can be used to directly benefit them. By bringing to attention the subject of technology's impact on humanity, one can particularly focus on the effects of mobile phone usage in helping patients diagnosed with mental illness. "Cell phone technology is in the hands of millions of Americans, and early research indicates that this technology can be useful to help Americans who are suffering from some form of mental illness". This paper will aim to analyze how effective a well-designed mobile application can be in providing a free and efficient means of intervention for the many patients out there that can't afford other means of support and intervention.

The issue of mental illness within society is significant because mentally ill patients often find it difficult to be able to socialize, and thus, they're thoroughly alienated in the eyes of the public. Furthermore, mental illness interventions are usually very costly, and those who need help frequently are unable to find any. By examining the effects of a mobile application, and the possible benefits, one will be able to somewhat determine if mobile applicants can be used in treating mental health patients which can help reach out millions of mental patients who have difficulty in coping with daily life, but who are already using mobile phones on a regular basis.

Because usage of smart phones is a trend that is relatively new, and because effective researches usually take an extensive period to be conducted, peer-reviewed, and have its credibility established, one can have a challenging time finding a myriad of content and resources available on the matter. However, numerous studies have found that mental patients have a high degree of mobile phone usage among them, which gives the implication that if a well-designed mobile application was established for them, it can reach them instantaneously since they are already using the devices.

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In the researches where conducted, it was found that mobile intervention provided positive and successful results in helping those with mental illnesses compared to those who don't use such means. For instance, a study that thoroughly examines the effects of mobile phone applications that aim to provide interventions for those that are trying to stop smoking found that smokers who utilized the mobile application intervention were approximately 1.7 times more likely to quit smoking compared to those who didn't use the mobile intervention methods.

Recent research shows that a phone application, indeed, can be useful in the treatment of,a mental illness, showing a weak correlation between texting among mental outpatients and improving mental health. In an experiment, the method of surveying mental outpatients was utilized to determine their amount of cell phone usage compared to the general public. The researchers found that the mental outpatients not only used cell phones consistently as the rest of society did, but that texting, which was the most common activity mental outpatients were participating in within their phone usage, could be an effective social treatment for those who cannot afford a better treatment.

Several critical studies that have already been done on the subject matter includes a study that examines the effects of a mobile application on stopping one in smoking cigarettes, a study that analyzes the mobile application that're available in the market to see how they benefit bipolar personality disorder, and a study that determines whether mental patients would even be interested in such an application.

Despite the numerous attempts in finding a cause-and-effect relationship between mobile phones and improving mental health in each of these experiments, these background studies are insufficient, because, as aforementioned, the concept of mobile phone applications assisting mental patients is a fairly new one, and for there to be any effective research completed on it, it will take a long time for researched to be conducted, results to be analyzed, and studies to be peer-reviewed. Therefore, preferably, a longitudinal study or an archival study would be more suitable in researching this matter.

The background studies that have been analyzed for this paper aren't accurately representative of the mental health population. For example, in a study that wasn't necessarily focused on the benefits of a mobile application towards mental health patients, but rather, if mental patients would even be interested in such a mobile application, and the degree of mobile phone usage within the representative sample, utilized the method of surveying to conduct their research. Not only was the surveying of only 100 patients, but they were from only one small area in Boston, and because there were no data on the demographics of each patient, the reader is left at a loss as to how these results compare in each gender, and age. Even if it were so, because of the possible bias that can be included in the survey method of research, one can't deem it as extremely reliable results.

Furthermore, most of the background studies on the effectiveness of mobile applications on mentally ill patients fail to study the activities of these patients in a natural setting. For example, one study utilized a range of mobile phone applications to determine how they could benefit the younger population, who usually use cell phones at an incredibly high rate, and who have a higher chance of establishing a life-long mental illness if not prevented during adolescence; however, rather than analyzing the cause-and-effect relationship between a mobile phone application and the possibility of improving mental health conditions of a patient in natural settings, the researchers concentrated on how the high amount of cell phone usage could be utilized by researchers to understand teenagers' behaviors more in-depth, and identify gaps in current mental illness research which can be used for further research in the subject matter.

Even though this study showed that although mobile phone applications can turn out to not have any direct benefits for those with mental illnesses, mental patients' activities on the phone can be used to better understand these patients, and thus, provide more effective means of treatment and intervention, it could've been more insightful to study these patients in a natural setting, where they aren't aware of being watched, and possibly change the way they behave.

Moreover, as one study clearly pointed out, the main concern researchers should have been whether mental health patients will even be interested in this method of self-counseling through mobile applications. Even if the effectiveness of such applications is proven to be true, it would be useless if mental patients don't find it attractive or appealing enough to use, and such applications usually require daily use for it to be effective, which, again, depends on the mental patient. Conclusively, further research definitely needs to be conducted for society to better understand the effects of mobile phone applications and whether these applications can be used in helping the mentally ill.

Further research can largely focus on if self-counseling and self-intervention methods are effective to begin with, a way researcher can appeal to mental health patients to use his or her products and services on a regular basis, and the contradiction in the possibility of treating mental illnesses with mobile phone applications when there is a known correlation between speech delay and increased phone usage.

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