Keep Depression Away

Depression is a globally common mood disorder during pregnancy and after childbirth for mothers and fathers, and even sometimes happens to newborns. Without proper prevention, intervention and treatment, it could significantly affect the development of children and the life quality of their entire family, and directly or indirectly cause many social problems. Herein, the proposed solution is to build an APP to help not only women but the whole families avoid and treat depression throughout pregnancy (antenatal) and after childbirth (postpartum). This APP will provide community support, psychological counseling and psychotherapy to different groups of target users regarding the risk of depression. It aims at providing the target users an effective online solution to prevent and treat antenatal and postpartum depression, strengthen family mental health, reduce derived health and social risk, and improve life quality in the long term. The solution is expected to significantly generate positive social impact globally.

Childbirth-associated depression is a common mood disorder distributed globally but easily unaware or intentionally ignored as a specific type of depression. It can happen during pregnancy or after childbirth, i.e. antenatal or postpartum depression respectively, and affect both sexes of parents and also newborns. Postpartum depression was reported to affect roughly 15% of women after childbirth, while it was estimated to affect 1% to 26% of new fathers by different reports. Even babies can feel depressed. According to a study in 2006, one in 40 infants experience depression. On the other hand, antenatal depression was estimated to affect 7% to 20% of pregnant women, while fathers can also experience depression during their partner's pregnancy. Unsurprisingly, if no proper intervention, antenatal depression could further develop into postpartum depression. Childbirth-associated depression may significantly affect the development of children and the future life of their entire family. It had been identified as a major risk factor for difficulties in a child’s life, and contributes to other health and social problems. However, stigma of depression may prevent the affected people from seeking proper intervention or treatment in time. Therefore, we would like to develop an effective online tool specifically addressing this important problem. 

The proposed solution is to build an APP to help not only women but entire families avoid and treat childbirth-associated depression. This APP will provide community support, psychological counseling and psychotherapy to different groups of target users, i.e. pregnant women and their partners at different risk of depression. Community support targeting all target users with low to high risk can be delivered by online forums and self-organized groups supported by the APP. State-of-art IT methods, such as AI-based chatbots can be also included as part of the free community support service. For target users at middle to high risk, or at least showing minor symptoms, they can receive private or group psychological counseling provided by professional psychological counselors via the APP. Furthermore, in operating countries which allow telemedicine, psychotherapy can be provided by psychologists or psychiatrists with aids of other professionals via the APP to those target users at high risk, showing severe symptoms or spontaneously seeking further medical advice. Considering the importance of family and social support in preventing and treating depression, at any risk level, target users could invite family members or close friends to participate in the aforementioned services but depending on their preference.

The target users served by the proposed solution are pregnant women and their partners. All of them and even their newborns are exposed to the risk of childbirth-associated depression at different level, and this mood disorder may cause long-term effects on their health and social relations and significantly enhance their and their infants’ health and social risk. Therefore, they will need proper methods for preventing, intervening or treating depression. However, many of them may unware their risk of childbirth due to lack of health literacy or intentionally ignore it because of stigma of depression. These behaviors do prevent them from seeking proper resources to help them handle with the risk of childbirth-associated depression. Hence, the solution in the form of an online APP was proposed to help the target users face, and avoid or solve this problem with respect of their privacy. This APP will provide a systematic approach to comprehensively cover the needs of target users at low to high level with services of community support, psychological counseling and psychotherapy. 

The solution was proposed to help target users prevent and treat antenatal and postpartum depression, strengthen family mental health, reduce derived health and social risk, and improve life quality in the long term. Therefore, it aligns well with the Challenge and the selected dimension.

Refugees who are pregnant women or their partners may feel huge stress during pregnancy and after childbirth and are at high risk of developing childbirth-associated depression. The proposed solution, as an APP run on mobile phones, will be the most easily available resources for this type of refugees to help prevent, intervene and treat depression. It will significantly reduce their health and social risk, and help them run better life in the new settlements and be included in the new society, or in any stage of the process to pursue their new life. While the solution is not designed specifically for refugees, the Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion will help our team to deploy the solution where as much as refugees can access the services.

The proposed solution is based on mobile technology to realize the functions of community support, psychological counseling and psychotherapy online. It aims at preventing, intervening and treating childbirth-associated depression of target population, especially women, and improve their life quality. Therefore, the solution aligns well with the scope of the Innovation for Women Prize. This prize can help us further optimize our solution to improve its friendliness, accessibility, usefulness and other features.
 

The proposed solution introduces new tools for preventing, intervening and treating childbirth-associated depression and improving life  quality of newborns, pregnant women, new mothers, and even fathers . It can be applied to any region with an operating telecommunication service and, hence, can also serve target population  in  low-income countries but maybe with some restrictions depending on the infrastructure. Therefore, it might fall into the scope of the Health Workforce Innovation Prize. This prize can help our team to deploy the solution in low-income countries and enhance its accessibility to target population.

Some functions as part of the proposed integrated solution are based on AI. For example, AI-based chatbots can be used as an aid of community support. AI-based emotion monitoring and prediction can provide clues about a subject's condition and help decision makings for a psychologist, psychiatrist or psychological counselor during psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Therefore, it aligns well with the scope of the AI for Humanity Prize. This prize can help our team to develop and integrate more AI-based functions into the solution.

The proposed solution introduces new tools for preventing, intervening and treating childbirth-associated depression and improving health of newborns, pregnant women, new mothers, and even fathers. It can be applied to any region with an operating telecommunication service and, hence, can also serve target population  in  low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, it aligns well with the scope of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Funded Award. This prize can help our team to adapt the solution in coordination or consultation with the public sector in the operating countries and enhance its accessibility to target population.

The proposed solution can be implemented in a freemium model, i.e. providing community support for free and offering psychological counseling and psychotherapy as charged services. Therefore, it aligns well with the scope of the Future Planet Capital Prize. This prize can help our team implement the solution in the freemium model, especially for developing and strengthening the competitiveness of the charged services.