“Mental Health in the 21st Century Digital Society: preventing mental illness in children and teenagers (SENTIA)”

Alicia Pérez de Albéniz, Javier Ortuño Sierra, Rebeca Aririo Solana and Adriana Díez Gómez del Casal, Universidad de La Rioja; Félix Inchausti, Salud Mental Navarra; Beatriz Lucas Molina, Universidad de Valencia; Héctor Olarte

The goal of this project is to develop a mobile app enabling out-patient assessment of mental health and subsequent monitoring for young people at risk of suffering this type of problem.

Mental health disorders in the child-teenage population, such as suicide, (cyber)bullying, substance abuse and psychosis, are one of the main health and social problems of the 21st Century. The researchers on this project wish to use new technologies within the digital society to help reduce these problems and improve quality of life for young people.

Over a period of 24 months, they will develop a mobile app enabling out-patient assessment of mental health and subsequent monitoring for young people with problems, aimed at applying it to and validating it in an empirical study. Furthermore, they will also develop a benchmark website in the field of mental health (within the BBVA Foundation) to serve as a forum for information and awareness-raising among parents, pupils, teachers and professionals (healthcare and otherwise).

SENTIA will enable advancements in the digital society to be implemented in the mental healthcare field via apps and websites, as well as mental health conditions to be assessed via new technologies, thereby achieving progress in the field of psychology and education.