The Optimist – Train your Brain Happy! – In addition to the series of exciting new programs aimed at the elderly, both in residential and assisted living homes. The Digital Line (TDL) are pleased to announce The Optimist.
The Optimist is an app to support self-management of mental health and well-being. The solution is designed for people who may be feeling anxious or sad and uses Cognitive Bias Modification to help improve well-being, reduce stress as well as boost your mood.
Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM), also known as Attentional Bias Training (ABT), is a computer-based therapy that works by gradually changing your attentional bias. An attentional bias is a tendency for our perceptions to be affected by our recurring thoughts. In other words, what we pay attention to in the world around us has a lot to do with what we’re thinking about.
For example, a person who thinks a lot about nature will be quick to notice surrounding birds and animals, Similarly, a depressed person whose thoughts are mostly negative will tend to only pay attention to negative events going on around them. In other words, they have a negative attentional bias. In everyday situations, having a tendency to automatically zoom in and focus on negative information can cause stress, anxiety and depression
The Optimist displays a selection of positive and negative images together, which consist of a variety of people’s faces. These can also include faces of family members and residents in the home in question. The images are displayed together, and the user is prompted to select a positive image.
The aim of the game is to tap the happy face as quickly as possible. This simple process of consciously and repeatedly selecting positive information over negative information, helps the user to gradually develop a positive bias – a tendency to focus more on positive information in their everyday life.
Focusing your attention on positive information triggers the release of the ‘happy’ chemicals, like endorphin, serotonin and oxytocin which in turn can have a positive result in the treatment of stress, anxiety and mood disorders and ultimately individuals will start feeling better about themselves.
About the Game
The game itself takes the user through a series of boards which get progressively harder.
Users must find the one happy face on each board.
If played once a day every morning users can improve their mental wellbeing and will find their performance will improve over time.
Each time the game is played, a simple data set is collected. This data can be personalised, aggregated, segmented, interrogated and presented in a portal so that care home managers and mental health professionals (or relatives) can assess mental wellbeing by region and over time.
They can identify changes in mood in reaction to events occurring in the wider world, or more local or personal happenings.
The Optimist is delivered as a mobile app, available on the Apple App Store and the Android Play Store.
All interactions in the games can be stored and analysed to measure changes in behaviour over time and in reaction to specific external incidents.
For access to the backend analytics and more unique data and reporting functionality, contact The Digital Line directly at info@thedigitalline.co.uk
Tags: Care Home, Elderly, Program, The Optimist
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