Vanessa Ly
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Kathleen Ignatoski
Research Mentor School/College/Department: University of Michigan / Medicine
Program: UROP
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Kathleen Ignatoski, Sandy Zalmout, Sandy Zalmout, Vanessa Ly
Abstract
Access to mental health resources has increased in demand significantly as people encounter undeniable stressors and learn about the importance of mental health. The problem is that oftentimes people who are struggling do not know where to search for these resources. For a school as large as the University of Michigan which encompasses three separate campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint, there is certainly a plethora of resources. However, the lack of a platform to learn about all of them makes it very difficult for people to be aware of such resources. This project aims to solve that problem by creating an app available on both Apple and Android devices, where staff and students of UMich can find resources based on their needs in one place. Thus, plenty of research on mental health resources offered both on-campus and off-campus was done for all three campuses of UMich and compiled into a large, evolving database. At the same time, a basic visual frame-work representing the prospective layout of the app was created. The combination of these two parallel developments allowed us to create a very early version of the app using React. Overall, the app will address the lack of accessibility to mental health resources by being a centralized area of information, reaching thousands of students and staff at the University of Michigan.
