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Australian carrier Telstra is sponsoring a project at the Murdoch Institute’s Centre for Adolescent Health which will hopefully help out teens with depression. By getting patients to regularly answer questionnaires on their mobile phone regarding mood, drug use, sleeping patterns and other lifestyle variables, doctors hope to more accurately diagnose and treat troubled youth. The program, mobiletype, is currently being tested with 200 people, the results of which will determine an Australia-wide rollout.
“mobiletype capitalises on the familiarity young people have communicating via SMS to help them express their feelings and have their mental well-being effectively assessed… Up to 30 per cent of young people will experience a form of depression by the end of their teenage years. About 50 per cent of common mental disorders begin during adolescence yet unfortunately most people wait six to 23 years to obtain appropriate treatment. Delays between the onset of depression and receiving appropriate treatment are associated with poor mental health outcomes in the long-term, which makes adolescence an important time for intervention,” said [Research Fellow Dr. Sophie Reid].
[via Cellular-News]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
