Can/should we be happy with digitization or rather worried?
Mental health and digitalization: we all feel the conflict between the two. We are happy with all that is possible. And yet at times it controls too much of our lives. For example, who among us sleeps with his smartphone next to his bed? And in whose case is it the last and first thing he or she looks at? Many hands went up when I asked this question, at the latest Kunlaboratorium: about whether digitization is a curse for our mental health or rather a blessing.
Not afar-off question, and so some eighty participants had come down to the Kunlabora offices in Leuven to discuss it. A diverse audience, active and dynamic, just like the setting. Kunlabora's offices were inviting. Open and creative. Colorful post-its everywhere. Feedback and ideas against all kinds of walls. A warm welcome for everyone with sandwiches and a drink. Great to be a host here. The vibe was good.
Lots of hands went up in the air.
Compulsive bulbs versus handy apps
Anyway, digitalization. What about it in my life? And in that of the public? For example, what about the red dots on our smartphones, the push notifications or notifications from apps? Who allows them? Who has also already turned them off? Because admit it, they are compulsive. And where do they end up drawing us? Among other things, to social media like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. And all the while we know by now that young people feel especially bad about themselves by scrolling through the “awesome” lives of others. And that we find mostly uninhibited polarization on Twitter. Stay far away from it, it seems tome. Mental health is not to be found here.
Except thatI'm also quite happy with all the apps on my phone. A bank app to do my finances, the indispensable KMI app. The Teams app that allows me to dial into a meeting without physically being there. (Thanks to corona.) There are also good sides to digitization. And that is immediately what this Kunlaboratorium wants to explore: what is already digitally possible that can help us feel good and thus contribute to our mental health, and what would be good if we developed it? Without making us feel worse and causing mental turmoil.
I'll give it away in advance: there is already a lot that can help us. More than I expected or thought, and in that respect this Kunlaboratorium was a real eye-opener. Thanks to enthusiastic speakers who delivered four short keynotes, to the point and drawn from life.
Warme scholen for resilient young people
Sarah Peene & Jan Toye came to talk about the GavoorGeluk Fund. That Fund aims to make young people resilient to prevent depression and suicide. Jan founded the Fund after his own son walked out of life, he was 21. And unfortunately, he was not the only one struggling. In Flanders, 1,200 people die each year by suicide, that's more than 3 per day. Hard numbers. Too many broken lives.
With the Fund, Jan wants to do for others what he can no longer do for his own child: create a warm society where escape routes like suicide are not necessary. He does that with projects under the banner Warm Flanders. One of them is Warme Scholen, which is pulled by Sarah.
Sarah took us on a roller coaster ride (50 slides in 10 minutes, and everyone followed captivated), talking about, among other things, how strange it is that education still works as it did 100 years ago (with one teacher in front of the class) while society around it is changing faster and faster.
Jan also told us that something is wrong: in larger cities, 1 in 4 young people leave school without a diploma. This can be done differently and better. Their proposal: personalized learning pathways, and teams of teachers responsible for a learning community of students, across years and subjects. Only, to make that affordable, digitization is needed.
Already they have set up a digital learning platform, together with Kunlabora, that collects best practices and invites everyone to actively participate in their learning community around Warme Scholen. And they advocate an app that continuously monitors us all in terms of mental health, from the school desk to the workplace. Because without monitoring, no policy. Proposals that did raise some questions (is such a thing affordable?), as well as concerns. Discussion: wonderful!
Are digital tools the future of therapy?
he second keynote was by Eva Van Assche, experimental psychologist at Thomas More Hogeschool. There, she researches how digital applications such as smartphone applications can contribute to accessible, affordable and effective mental health care. Could digital tools be the future of therapy?
Corona has already taken a big step forward in this, Eva says. Like a “black swan” or “black swan” moment: an unexpected event that almost no one had seen coming beforehand. Suddenly, through corona, online consultations with psychological counselors were possible. But what else is possible beyond a session via Zoom, for example?
We find out through the story of Alex, who is mugged one day, and afterward notices that he is anxious and sleeps badly. He does what we all do: he searches the Internet for information and tips & tricks. Only question is: can online self-help work?
Yes, it turns out, if you are guided and encouraged to use the online self-help tools. Otherwise, the use quickly becomes diluted. Also important is knowing what such an app or tool is worth. Knowledge about digital self-help tools among social workers and clients is still very limited. People looking for help really need a foothold. One such reference point is the website online-help-apps.be, where experts (from Thomas More, among others) provide an overview of clear, accessible and reliable apps.
Because a lot of digital tools are already available. For example, Alex, in consultation with his therapist, uses an app to monitor his mood so he realizes which circumstances trigger his stress and anxiety. And he can use virtual reality to return to the scene of the robbery without having to physically go there already. This way, he can first relive the experience of the robbery in a safer environment with the guidance of his therapist. So, there are already many digital tools available, whose effectiveness has been demonstrated in research, only they are not yet widely used in practice.
How can wearables and data track your mental health?
How useful is it to have a smartwatch around your wrist or something else that measures your heart rate, or your sweat or other signals that give away about how you're feeling? Very useful, we find out from the last keynote, from Erika Lutin. Erika is a bioengineer (with a master’s degree in human health engineering), and is working on a PhD at imec and KULeuven. Among other things, imec focuses on monitoring mental health. The question is: how far along are they with that, and where do they want to go?
One of the new technologies imec is betting on are “wearables,” or wearable sensors, such as in a smartwatch. They are not only developing the chips for these, but at the same time investigating what they can learn from the data of these sensors. About mental health, for example.
I found surprising what Erika told me about what stress monitoring in the work environment can reveal. For example, someone who is under stress for a long time and/or has depressive symptoms will have a lower stress response to something stressful that happens, than someone without that stress or symptoms. Which can be a signal to intervene before someone drops out due to too much stress or impending depression. Preventative. And such things can all be monitored through wearables.
You also see them popping up more and more around you, the smartwatches. One of my sisters monitors her steps with them. (Are there enough of them already? No, not yet. Or yes, my watch just told me I was doing well and met my goal). And someone else told me he uses it to monitor his sleep. (Did I sleep well last night? Well enough to exercise well too?) And that unnoticed, without much effort. Ideal for collecting data!
And also, our smartphone keeps all kinds of data about our behavior and habits without much effort. To process all that data, AI is being deployed, which can lead to new insights and preventive mental health care. However, the use of wearables in the digitization of mental health care is still in its infancy: a lot of research work is still needed to develop a solid, secure scientific basis for the use of these tools to take prevention to the next level, says Erika.
Getting started in breakout sessions
And then the participants could get to work themselves in four breakout sessions, or workshops. One on how life-like virtual reality can be. A second on how Warme Scholen its learning platform works, and how they could improve it. A third on how not everyone is just along for the ride with apps, and how app developers could close the digital gap. And a final one about what the participants themselves would have liked on the agenda. The post-its were flying around.
Workshop Virtual Reality
Eva from Thomas More had brought two VR apps for her group to test. It was nice to experience real-life situations in VR, the group thought. For example, everyone had to overcome some fear of standing on the tip of a plank above an immense abyss in a skyscraper environment (Richie's Plank Experience). A few of the participants already had VR experience, most of them not yet, and everyone still had a waw moment: you know you are on the ground, that nothing can happen, but your eyes see something else and therefore you stand on that virtual plank with buckling knees (and sometimes a little screaming).
Then, fortunately, there was the opportunity to relax in VR with the Flowborne app. People could sit quietly in a seat with the VR headset on and do breathing exercises in captivating worlds. The rhythm of your own breathing leads you through serene and relaxing landscapes.
Workshop Warme Scholen
Is the Warme Scholen learning platform working well? That's what this little group would consider. For now, the learning platform is not catching on enough, Sarah and Jan from the GavoorGeluk Fund noticed. So, they wanted to know how they could use the platform to attract more people to become part of their learning community.
The input was very interesting. One piece of advice was to sharpen the starting point (What do I want from a forum? What drives me to it? And do I find that enough on WS?) The group also looked at possible barriers (doubt and trepidation about what to post) and solutions (a community manager who can direct). Curious to see the evolution.
Mental health workshop and the digital gap
How do I make sure everyone is on board with the digital apps? And that even my grandmother enjoys using the bank app? That was the question for the group here, led by the Social Innovation Factory. So, they had to look not for ever newer technologies, but for a broader basis for the existing apps.
We can see the need for that in the numbers, the group was told: more than 40 percent of 16- to 74-year-olds are digitally vulnerable. The suggestions? Provide a digital buddy. Or provide an app play environment where you can use it without fear of doing something wrong. Or convince your grandmother why it's important to use a particular app. What's in it for me? No doubt it helps that an app allows her to chat with the grandchildren.
Workshop via fishbowl-principle
This slightly larger group was allowed to decide what they wanted to explore more in depth. Everyone was allowed to paste their proposals on an idea wall. Through voting, they came up with the two that were most liked.
First, how can digitization proceed without over-stimulation? How to collect data without disturbing it? And second, what about the privacy around that data? Because it is good that there is a lot of monitoring. Only one important question remaining: what happens to that data?
Should something like that be regulated through legislation, or for example through a label that companies can get, that they will treat data correctly.
Mental health and digitization may sound dry, but that was not the approach of this Kunlaboratorium. I felt addressed as a human being, I heard from a few of the participants. Who were able to chat afterwards at a networking event. A fine discovery. Looking forward to the next Kunlaboratorium!
Pascale Mertens
Journalist VRT NWS
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