Safe Space

An interactive cabin that allows easier access to different relaxation methods

Our solution is a cabin where a person who has reached a high level of stress or any emotion can go to relax. While in it, the person will have a detailed and personalized list of de-stressing methods according to the specific emotion felt which is guided by the RULER method. The cabin will also include the materials with the directions to put in practice the relaxation method chosen, and that will be more useful for the person. The technology used is a touch screen that will have an algorithm to showcase the best relaxation method according to the specific emotion.

The problem we are trying to solve is the physical and emotional health damages of repressed emotions throughout the world. The lack of emotional expression or so-named “bottling up your emotions” produces an increased chance of premature death from all causes by more than 30%, and a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer increasing by 70% according to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester. Thanks to the COVID pandemic, anxiety disorders have gone up by 28% only in Mexico. 80% of people from my community constantly have to take a break from situations that cause extreme levels of stress and 76% don’t have access to a proper place to release their emotions, resulting in low effectiveness in work, low self-esteem, and a higher risk of depression. The mental health stigma of being weak if emotions are shown is common across Latin America and a reason why people don’t take care of their mental health problems till these affect their daily lives. People want to have access to solutions to improve their mental well-being, but the high prices of mental health services and lack of knowledge of how to handle these issues by companies and schools make the difficulty bigger. Bottling up emotions impacts not only students and teens, but also kids, adults, and elders.

The target population I am working with to better their lives is teenage students. Students are constantly pushed, expected, and pressured by their, parents, teachers, and friends to give more than what they have. This being a flaw of educational systems is a bigger problem that we have to learn to deal with, without the appropriate emotional tools it is almost impossible. Teenagers’ mental health is unobserved and underserved because of the constant expectations and comparisons, this is because of social media, school, and society’s lack of knowledge of how to handle the emotional necessities of new generations who are now more independent and connected to technology than ever. This solution allows solving a mental health issue before it generates, by a student having available methods to know how to channel their feelings from a young age they will develop emotional intelligence and be able to put the advice given in practice in the future when they are in a working field.

I have done surveys around people of different ages in my community and especially with students and classmates who have given positive feedback and suggestions towards this idea. I am compromised with generating a better educational environment where students’ mental health is a priority for them to have the best academic results. As member of the school club Active Youth, we are directed towards this mission of generating a positive school community and dedicated to aiding students in emotional distress by giving support and making it easier to access certified psychologists. I have spoken with people in social media who suffer from anxiety and depression disorders, which have also helped me to focus this project in different directions to have a wider reach. Classmates and friends who also suffer from mental health problems or who just want to contribute to the project have helped me to add this perspective of prevention and aid, also to design the algorithm and the cabin.

The stage of development of Safe Space is still in the prototype phase. The business model and idea have been offered and approved by psychologists, directors of workspaces, and schools. The algorithm development for the touch TV screen to work is still in progress and in the designing phase, but the first cabin alongside its compliments is already in a prototype phase. The cabin is still being built and the materials that are going to be used towards its creation are being tested. 

The core technology that boosts our project is the creation of the interactive digital algorithm program which relies on the ruler mood meter method to give the best relaxation methods according to the 100 emotions described. Our goal is to also set preferences of methods by age, profession, and emotional intensity

According to our collected data around our region, 63% of people under recurrent stress would use a place to relax at least once a month, and 13% would every day. Safe Space is a cabin for private businesses and regulated areas and more specific data will be provided once it is on a functional stage. Estimating by charts, in a school of 500 students, 315 would use Safe Space at least once a month and 65 would use it every day, as Safe Space reaches more companies it will also reach more people to help to prevent and aid in emotional distress situations. 

We know that with more companies who acquire a Safe Space cabin, we will reach and aid more people to be able to express themselves by relaxing and to put on practice these methods in case they don’t find one nearby. We want to make an impact upon society that you don’t have to be depressed or have an anxiety disorder in order to ask for emotional support, by identifying and preventing early signs of mental health problems long-term consequences can be evaded. Allowing people to have emotions and making common their validation instead of ignoring them will give a boost to society, people’s personal life and will contribute towards eradicating a negative view of asking for help. We plan to partner with local and national associations to donate part of the earnings towards foundations that provide free therapies and to direct users of Safe Space who may need these services but don’t have the money for them.

We will be working on the prototype development and financing the first semester of 2022 and in the second semester of 2022, we will be open to cabin requests. We want to add a database where a recurrent user of safe space can enter to his user and recreate previous relaxation methods that have already worked for them without the necessity of looking for them. This will help Safe Space to track the average time that the cabin is in use and the daily active, recurrent users. 

The barrier of COVID growth of cases has slowed our progress of the prototype building, going to schools to collect more data about mental health in our local area, and finding the ideal material for the cabin to work inside and outside a building. Financially as the developers, of this project we are still high school students short on time and money, we have had to put off our savings towards the first cabin built. 

My team is organized by Huri and Pedro Torres’s cousin’s members of my family. Pedro a 10th-grade high school student has a background in STEM elective classes and wants to study Programming or electrical engineering, he is in charge of designing the Moodmeter program and of figuring out more interactive methods for this program to be used. He is in the progress of trying to contact professional programmers to teach him how to make the Beta of this app. Huri Torres his sister also is in her 10th year of high school and wants to be a Lawyer, she is in charge of verifying the privacy setting of the app alongside Pedro and who designs logos, images, 3D models for the cabin, and its interior. I Marilu Flores am a 12th-grade student who wants to study economics and public policy, my volunteering in mental health groups while working in a transportation-related part-time job has given me the financial experience to administer entrepreneurship. With this project, we have already won a course scholarship given by Cofundador to enter a development program but now we need the financial opportunity and mentorship to make our project a reality.

We are partnered with 2 certified psychologists from our locality who work with us by mentorships and corrections upon how to offer a better product. We are also partnered with the Mental health school club Active Youth who helps us with suggestions and ideas upon how to make the project more accessible and with data research.

Our project qualifies because it aims to prevent  and aid people who are likely to suffer from mental health problems thanks to their work and study environments. This is important in a world where women are 40% more likely than men to develop a mental illness, tan men. My team will use The Pozen Social Innovation Prize to accelerate our prototype development to invest in its software and quality. This will help us to have a wider reach in mentorship, ideas, publicity and with a less economical problem.