Bloom

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User dashboard

Inspiration

Health is wealth, at least according to philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, there is a critical part of this “wealth” that is being overlooked.

Despite the rise in mental health awareness globally, mental health care is not accessible to people who need it. According to mentalhealth.org.uk, young people aged 16-24 are found to be less likely to receive mental health care than any other age group.

Barriers like limited access to mental health care (cost of therapy, lack of information, availability of professionals), the stigma associated with receiving mental health care and privacy concerns of mental health care prevent them from seeking proper mental health care.

As a young person, I am also aware of constraints in seeking and receiving mental health and I want to change that.

With this in mind, I created Bloom, a mental wellness web application that provides resources to guide young people towards mental wellness. Its core features include:

A journal with prompts to guide users on journaling.
A to-do and habit tracker.
A mental wellness chatbot for personalized tips and advice for mental wellness.
Mental wellness guides and contents including a simulation quiz that tests users’ coping strategies in stressful situations. (still in development)

By targeting the youth, Bloom aims to address mental health issues at a crucial developmental stage, thereby 'protecting them'.

How we built it

Bloom was built using Django, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Bootstrap, and PostgreSQL.

Challenges we ran into

A major challenge was deploying Bloom to the internet. As a developer, this was one of my first experiences deploying a Django project on the internet. It was challenging working around it but I was able to learn a great deal about the process.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud that I was able to implement a database encryption feature to protect private user data.

What's next for Bloom

I plan on implementing more features to help more young people access mental wellness resources and bypass any barriers. Some features I plan on implementing: