Team: Pennsylvania/Delaware
Team Members: Akash Kapoor & Rishi Kamta
Reviewed by: Ashish Patel, Hemanth Tanwar, Anupama Kapoor
Date Published: Oct 5 2022
In the Design to Lead Program, employing design thinking principles aided in identifying and building a solution that addressed one real need in the community. This non-linear, iterative process involved five stages—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. During the course of the program, a specific issue was identified that significantly impacted a specific section of the community. A potential solution was proposed that could mitigate the impact, and implemented a small-scale solution within the community. The issue the PA-DE team worked on was on creating awareness of mental health issues that were impacting the teens of Chester County Community. Mental health encompasses psychological, emotional, and social well-being and will have short-term and long-term repercussions if illnesses are not identified and treated. Based on this critical gap that team identified, the need statement was developed – “A way to address the lack of awareness of mental health among families of high school students in the Chester County school district in order to spread the knowledge of mental health illnesses by 10%.”
After identifying the unmet need, a need statement was developed methodically by employing a brainstorming process, and conducting the extensive primary and secondary research. During Phase one, the Miro board was used for brainstorming sessions, which involved creating a stakeholder map, and developing and refining need statements. While the primary research entailed interviews with experts and members of the impacted community, the secondary research included examining and analyzing information from primary sources. Primary research provided an in-depth perspective on the real-life experiences of subject matter experts from the field. The subject matter experts provided major insights into the research.
Dr. Sachi Kamtam, Dr. Patience Demosky, and Bernadette Selgrath - Education coordinator at the National Alliance of Mental Illness Club were consulted throughout the process.
During phase one, stakeholders were mapped out and the team interviewed doctors, therapists, teachers, peers, and school counselors about their experiences with mental health. These interviews were beneficial and helped us identify potential real-world problems that other stakeholders found important. For example, during the interview with one of the parents, it was found that some parents lacked awareness about teenage mental health which is a profound problem and gap as parents interact and impact many teenagers’ lives. Without this knowledge, there was inadvertently a missing link of empathy and compassion that was required to address the needs of teenagers suffering from mental health illnesses. Additionally, interviews were also conducted on a personal level talking to friends and family about their experiences.
After researching and brainstorming, the acronym for the project was selected - SMILE Solution for Mental Health Illness Leveraging Empathy. Furthermore, a website was prototyped that would solve the unmet need. The process of prototyping involved carefully considering every little detail in the website from the design to the information that is required. It was agreed to create different tabs on the website which contain additional information that would be useful for the viewers. For example, the tabs for ted-talk videos, signs, and signals of mental health, and a donation page where people can donate money to mental health charities. Counselors are also listed on the website and can be reached out to by teenagers to answer questions as well as provide any necessary help. After prototyping, the idea was implemented onto a stand-alone website, and eventually published the website after completing its design. As a part of the project, it was agreed to create a Mental Health Awareness club (with guidance from National Alliance on Mental Health – “Nami”) in schools, one of which is now being commissioned in The Shipley school, in Philadelphia.
Using various tools such as the website (smileforeveryone.org) and tools like infographics, the news of the mental awareness club has spread. The students are slowly warming up to the idea of having a mental health awareness club. As of late November, there have been more than 400 visitors to this website. We hope that this club will provide teenagers with a safe platform to open up and share their challenges without any fear of being judged.
Out of the three ideas proposed, the standalone website has been implemented, and looking forward to integrating with various Chester County organizations such as school websites and the Sewa website. Furthermore, the project's ambition is to closely collaborate with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) which is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.
Throughout the various stages of the three phases, the team reflected upon things that went well and areas that could be improved. The DTL project inculcated critical skills like planning, organizing, prioritizing, time management, and collaborating with teams to solve real-world problems. With these learned skills, the students of DTL are well-prepared for college and life.
