Researcher Plinio Morita, Applied Health Sciences, is working on an application that assesses suicide risk.
The app, CASCA, uses machine learning to psychologically assess teens. It conducts conversations and provides psychological assessments to the user via chatbot. The app also stores and tracks the user's social media interactions.
Moritia is continuing to research ways to enhance current technologies in order to make them able to analyze large amounts of data for integration into graphs, charts, and scores for clinicians. This is beneficial, as it would allow for Doctors to monitor their patients without an unnecessary visit to a hospital or clinic.
Further, CASCA provides educational tools and infographics to help educate parents on mental health. By providing this information, CASCA acts as a facilitator of communication regarding mental health issues between teens and their parents.
CASCA is an empowering tool that holds the potential to disrupt traditional models of care in a system with limited traditional mental health resources.