Recently, the topic of mental health has been spoken a lot. During the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health became an issue that was increasingly rising to the surface. However, awareness of the importance of mental health issues is still inadequate.
Responding to these conditions, the Student Creativity Program (PKM) team of Karsa Cipta (KC) scheme of Universitas Brawijaya (UB) innovated to create an application for early detection of depression in students, called DETECT ME.
The DETECT ME team is under the guidance of Ika Herani, S.Psi., M.Si., a psychologist and Muhammad Afif Alhad, S.Psi., M.Si. The team consists of three cross-disciplinary UB students, namely Tamarishka Natalie Yuwono (Psychology 2018), Salma Salima Hariza Nihru (Communication Science 2018), and Muhammad Aulia Fachruz Dzikrullah (Informatics Engineering 2016).
Tamarishka, the team leader, stated that their idea (DETECT ME, red.) Was motivated by the conditions that a person experiences when he is a student. Where the lecture period is the period when someone experiences a transitional period.
“During the lecture period, students face quite complex changes. Starting from having to meet academic expectations to social problems. Not all students are ready to face such challenges, which causing some of them to suffer from stress to depression, ”said Tamarishka.
Through DETECT ME, students can check their mental health conditions independently. In addition, there is a consultation service feature with psychologist.
Ika Herani as the supervisor explained, “In the DETECT ME application, students can find out earlier about their depression tendencies. After that, students can carry out further consultations with peer counselors or psychologists to get further treatment if needed. ”
In line with Ika, Tamarishka stated, “Besides preventive action, intervention is needed. After students find out about their mental health conditions, what then? There the importance of intervention acts, in the context of our application is a feature of consulting services with psychologists. ”
DETECT ME presents with the expectation to help students pay more attention to their mental health.
“Because maintaining mental health is as important as maintaining physical health. If students’ mental health is disturbed, their productivity will decrease. Not only that, I hope this application can make students more aware and sensitive to mental health problems, “concluded Tamarishka. [sal / sr/ Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
