Psychosis is a mental health condition where you may have difficulty recognising what is real and what is not. It affects around three out of every 100 people, as per the National Institute of Mental Health data.
A new mental health app developed by London design studio Special Projects and a team of clinical psychologists aims to help people dealing with psychosis and is designed to work alongside in-person therapy.
The programme, which relies on 5 years of research and development, is led by Professor Philippa Garety at King's College London. Working with Special Projects, they have produced the SlowMo app.
The SlowMo app allows users to identify and record unhelpful "fast-thinking" patterns and slow them down through the use of animated bubbles. The app's primary function is to help users monitor and recall these unhelpful thoughts, which they can identify and name by creating a grey "worry bubble" that is then scaled to represent how severe the worry feels at the time.
They can later discuss these worries with their therapist. Currently, the app gives users the opportunity to address them independently, with prompts encouraging them to reframe their views and consider factors that may be causing fast-thinking patterns.
"How would you see things if you were in a better mood," the app asks. Or: "could it be about them, not you?"
The app also contains a "toolkit" of other resources for users, alongside content such as interactive activities for therapy sessions.
The SlowMo team has been awarded £1.3 million in funding from the Wellcome foundation to develop the app beyond its current clickable prototype form and test it across three National Health Service (NHS) trusts. The plan is to eventually offer it across the whole NHS.
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