A Complete Guide on How to Develop a Mental Health App

Posted in Healthcare Software

Aspects to Consider When Developing a Mental Health App

Battling a mental health disorder is never easy, and when people tell the sufferer to just “get over it,” it becomes even more strenuous. Mental health is a growing concern for people of all populations. From rich to poor countries, worsened mental health conditions are the leading cause of death. It is estimated that about 20% of adolescents (10 to 19 years old) struggle with a mental health disorder.

The rise of mental health app development has helped a great deal in eliminating the stigma that surrounds psychological problems.

The main goal of these applications includes their accessibility to anyone suffering from a mental illness and serve as an excellent solution for those who are unwilling or unable to attend face-to-face therapy.

Mental health app developers aim to provide a safe space to patients where they can access treatment anonymously and at lower costs. Interestingly, people have shown great acceptance of this software since tech applications are the main means of communication now.

Compliance Standards To Follow For Data Security In Mental Health Apps

While creating a mental health app, it is integral to place confidentiality and privacy as a top priority. This is achieved through regulatory guidelines set for developing these mobile apps. Some of the compliance standards include GDPR privacy rules, encryptions, and HIPAA compliance for telehealth apps. During the design process, it is critical to keep in mind the platform where your mental health applications will be available. Whether it will be on both Android and iOS versions or just for Android users.

Your mental health app features play a significant role in its success. Consider offering activities, meditations, and the option to consult with licensed therapists. Additionally, decide the range of the mental health conditions your app will address so that your audience gets the desired support.

Let’s take a closer look at the development processes of mental health applications!

How to Create a Mental Health App?

Mobile users make up more than half of the traffic on the web. This explains why most businesses are interested in creating a mental health app that is easy to access through smart gadgets. Mobile mental health service providers can conveniently check up on their patients and track their progress.

Mental wellness applications reduce the workload of therapists and psychiatrists. While from a business point of view, they allow users to reach a wider audience. If you have questions like, “How do you develop a mental health application? What aspects should you consider when building an application for mental health services?” this blog is here with answers.

Types of Mental Health Apps

Set your goals according to the type of mental health application you want to develop and ways to unlock its full potential. This sets the ground for your mental health app features that are integral to the development process. The time, cost, audience, and monetization strategies vary depending on the type of app you create.

The mental health apps market is on the rise, and some common reasons why they are used include:

24/7 Support For People with Mental Disorders

These applications address multiple mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. You can choose a specific condition or offer support for multiple disorders. Standard features often include mood tracking, journaling, and psychotherapy.

Dealing with PTSD Flashbacks

A person suffering from PTSD requires constant support with anger management since they’re afraid of reliving the past. Music selection, breathing exercises, and self-talk methods are usually the main focus of such a mental health tracking app.

Some PTSD support software may even integrate healthcare applications with a user’s contacts, making it easier to contact them for assistance.

Eating Disorders

Stress, anxiety, and other triggers might lead to the development of eating disorders. Excessive eating or not eating at all causes severe distress in the body, which is why medical software development companies always embed mental health tracking features in addition to diet trackers. Other than that, they also allow users to set eating goals and recommend to their users what they should eat and at what time.

Apps for Meditation and Self-improvement

As soon as the pandemic hit, there was a surge in meditation and self-improvement apps as their demands increased considerably. Such platforms have become people’s go-tos for post-stress management and practicing relaxation techniques. Meditation and self-improvement apps help with stress management, mindfulness, effective breathing, etc.

Apps Offering Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Techniques

CBT-based apps typically provide interactive tools and activities that guide users through a therapy process. As part of mental health apps for women, CBT techniques are often included to assist female users in reframing negative thoughts, developing coping skills, and changing harmful behaviors.

How To Develop A Mental Health App?

Here is an easy step-wise guide to developing a mental health application:

Conduct Proper Research 

Developing a good mental wellness application starts with thorough research and setting goals for the type of app you want to make, the problems it aims to solve, and the type of health concerns that are dealt with using your application.

It is also important to apprehend your target audience. Certain mental health conditions are more specific and common for a particular age group. Hence, you need to focus on that age group and their interests.

Many factors other than age will impact your choice of platforms, content, design, etc. These factors include the audience’s interests and preferences, financial standing, cultural exceptions, etc.

For Example

One of the few examples could be mental health development for women and their interests. Women may experience hormonal changes that can affect their mood and overall well-being. Moreover, stressors arise during work-life balance, caregiving responsibilities, and societal expectations. You can create an application that can cater to all these domains.

Discover how our mental health application for St. Michaels Hospital is helping women manage their mental well-being with endometriosis.

Some of the common women’s health apps track menstrual cycles and mood changes, provide exercises for stress and anxiety relief, etc. As research progresses on developing a new mental health app, it may be possible to consider incorporating these features into the app’s design.

In addition to focusing on the users, you should research the market and the competition. A detailed analysis of the market and your competitors can help you identify the best and worst methods used in creating a mental health app in your niche. This useful piece of information can help you design an app far more appealing than your competitors.

Hire Skilled Mental Health Application Developers

Your application development starts with a competent team, and it should comprise of the following people:

• Android developer
• iOS developer
• Web developer
• Server-side developer
• Mental health app UI designer
• UX designer
• 2-3 quality assurance (QA) specialists
• Project manager

An unqualified team can fail in doing their job. Therefore, hiring experienced professionals who have already worked on health-related projects is most practical. Make sure they know all the ins and outs of GDPR or HIPAA compliance and other technicalities.

Prototype and Create the UX/UI Design

Prototyping is the verification of design ideas, which ensures that the features work as planned. Start with mapping out a plan to make your application, and focus on the finest details like the scheme, designs, and distinct brand elements. Choose everything that makes the app’s user interface appealing.

Build The MVP and Test It

The app must meet all applicable user-friendliness and security requirements.  All types of testing are important to develop a mental health application :

• Functional testing
• Usability testing
• Interface testing
• Compatibility testing
• Performance testing
• Security testing

Once your application has been entirely tested and made accordingly, submit it to an app store – and you are done!

Mental Health App Design – Ideas and Development 

User Interface design in healthcare apps makes them easy to use and engages the crowd. Automating the following parts can raise the productivity of the app:

• Appointment bookings
• Patient registrations
• Payment processing
• Symptom controls
• Prescriptions

EHR integration for mental health is a great way to track users’ progress.

User-Centered Design

User-centered design is all about focusing on your target and their demands. You must identify your audience’s thoughts, feelings, desires, and struggles. This can help you design an app with a UI that appeals to the users and makes them want to use the app to track their progress.

Design a List of Basic Features

Before creating UI/UX design, you should choose a list of basic features. There is no need to overload the application with complex functionality. Create a clear information architecture so that all the information in the app is focused and organized. After that, you can start the UI/UX design process.

At the UI design stage, you need a design system or UI kit that contains all the visual elements of your application, such as icons, buttons, input fields, fonts, colors, etc.

Include the following steps in your development procedure. 

• Wireframing (creating a rough sketch of the application screen)
• Prototyping (creating an interactive model of a future product).
• Testing (carried out to see if the application has been developed according to the plan)

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

• The user interface should not contain elaborate elements or bright colors. These two features can potentially trigger disorder aggravation.
• You must pay extra attention to audio effects and dodge sharp, loud sounds. Instead, you can include mild tunes or sounds of nature to have a soothing effect on the users.

Why Are Mental Health Apps Useful?

They support patient care by acting as an adjunct to therapy. For example, mental health applications provide worksheets and tools that the provider can “assign” to a patient between sessions in order to save time for face-to-face interaction during therapy sessions.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Understanding who you are targeting with your app is the key to developing a mental health application. Every age group has different mental states; for instance, a young adult going through a heartbreak might be more shattered than an adult going through the same thing. This is because of the different maturity levels and experiences of both age groups.

The three aspects integral to any mental health app are:

1. End-user/ Audience
2. Common problems
3. Mental health states

Key Features 

Just like any other app, a mental health application has to focus on its users, both patients and medical practitioners.  From cognitive-behavioral therapies and mood regulation programs to customized settings and gamification, the features one can implement in a mental health application are limitless.

Draft a plan that offers full functionality to both doctors and patients. This plan will help put the relevant features in place that provide maximum benefits to users. Here are four main features of a top-notch mental health application:

Self Monitoring

Tracking mood patterns and managing stress are the main reasons why mentally unhealthy individuals use such applications. While people suffering from psychological conditions use them for symptom and progress tracking. Self-monitoring includes recording one’s thoughts, feelings, and mood. For eating disorders, tracking meals is an excellent self-monitoring feature.

Notifications and Reminders

Notifications remind users to go for a walk, practice relaxation and do other things that are required to maintain a healthy mental state. The main goal of these alerts is to encourage self-awareness by providing users with tailored popups.

Alerts are an excellent solution for busy users. However, an overload of notifications is likely to increase stress. Even mental health professionals suggest not to add too many notifications.

Support Groups

Support groups are often recommended by therapists to their patients, helping them overcome their mental illnesses. Users can share their journeys in a haven where they are supported by others going through a similar condition. These groups are usually monitored by professionals, promoting open discussions among users.

Web-based support groups on an application are easy to access and a great way of acquiring information that therapists and patients need.

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Mental Health App?

One of the most important aspects of telemedicine software development is the cost of developing mental health software. The value of any business is decided based on two aspects:

1. The idea’s feasibility
2. Cost

Testing the feasibility of an application and knowing the medical app development cost is key to deciding whether putting the plan into action is worth it or not.

The features and functions of an app determine the telemedicine software cost. Still, a more accurate estimate is provided by the amount of time app developers and designers will spend on developing the app.

Stages after development need funding. For example, marketing, advertisement, and even running and maintaining the application require significant money.

Learn how to integrate EHR with billing software for Mental Health professionals.

Now, let’s talk about one of the most important aspects of telemedicine software development: the cost of creating a mental health app.

Mental health app development costs between $40,000 to $75,000. The price of developing such apps depends on the scope, features, and development effort required to build an app.

Mental Health Apps Market Size

Here is a detailed analysis of how much a mental health app costs: 

• A basic mental health app can cost you around $25,000.
• A mid-level app with costs $30,000.
• An app that can offer its users on-demand mental health appointment booking costs $50,000.
• An AI mental health app with a chatbot can cost $55,000 to $80,000, depending on the data and its scope.
• A mental health app specific for certain mental health complications like ADHD or PTSD will cost around $65,000 to $75,000.

Mental Health App problems

A few of the common problems a user might experience while utilizing mental health apps include:

• Unintended consequences like inaccurate information and self-diagnosis
• Clinical validation and efficacy
• Privacy of patient information
• Patient safety and risk
• Addressing unintended consequences

Are Mental Health Apps Evidence-Based?

Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store contain over 200 applications that claim to provide treatment for mental health conditions. However, only 3.41% of these apps had published research that proved their effectiveness, according to NCBI. In other words, not all applications that one finds on the web are evidence-based.

NCBI also revealed that only 20.48% of the mental health apps available online have an institutional affiliation.

What are the Top Mental Health App Ideas?

People have brought the topic of mind health to the spotlight, focusing more on their mental well-being and striving to eliminate the stigma that surrounds this topic. Considering the unpredictable situation today, an increasing number of people are dealing with psychological issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, etc. This means the demand for mental health programs is increasing.  According to the latest data, there are currently more than 20,000 mental health applications in the market.

Statistica states that mental wellness apps were installed more than 215,000 times from November 3 to November 5, 2020, in the US. Here are some of the few trending apps in the market:

Sleep trackers:

These apps allow women to track mood swings and even menstrual cycles. They also provide a list of therapists that women can consult through the platform via video calls or texts.

Women’s well-being apps:

Designed for individuals who face trouble sleeping. Sleep trackers provide activities such as deep breathing and relaxing music that ease their anxiety.

Virtual therapy apps:

Online applications make therapy accessible easily to individuals, allowing users to consult a therapist without leaving their homes.

Emotional wellness apps:

These apps allow individuals to manage their anxiety and practice exercises to control their stress levels.

Meditation and stress management software:

During the outbreak of the pandemic, people have turned to meditation through virtual applications to manage their stress and anxiety. They allow users to reduce stress and understand their feelings better by practicing relaxation techniques such as meditation and deep breathing.

Self-improvement apps:

These apps allow users to build their self-confidence, overcome fears, relieve their stress, and overcome fears. Common features of these apps include video tutorials, step-by-step guides, and therapists.

Mental Health App Business Plan

Business plans are instrumental in setting benchmarks to measure success and set the foundation for any business. They help developers design an easy-to-use framework for a convenient, flawless, easy-to-navigate application. When developing a plan, start with the mission statement of your app. What value do you intend to bring? What makes your app unique?

Don’t forget the marketing strategy, especially for newly established applications. Dedicating several hours per week to advertising your app attracts more users.  A financial model is also an important part of a business plan. Make sure your expenses, costs, and revenues are included in the mental health app business plan.

Find out how healthcare professionals can use EHR for behavioral health.

Evidence-based Mental Health Apps

Not all apps available on the App Store and Google’s Play Store are reliable and safe to use. Every readily available application is not developed in collaboration with mental health professionals.

Here are some evidence-based mental health apps

• IntelliCare: The app is funded by NIH-funded research.
• Breathe2Relax: This program focuses on teaching people breathing exercises and comes from the National Center for Telehealth and Technology.
• CBT-i Coach: The app was developed based on the collaboration of the VA’s National Center for PTSD, the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology, and the Stanford School of Medicine.
• DBSA Wellness Tracker: This app allows users to track their emotional, physical, and mental health. It was developed by The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA).
• Virtual Hope Box:  the National Center for Telehealth & Technology created the app for depression patients.

Mental Health App Structure

In this section, let’s look at the common features of mental health apps.

Sign up & Profiles

User policies for mental health apps are often more strict, which means the sign-up process is detailed but not too long.

Details such as phone number, name, or email are enough at the beginning. Other details to form a medical profile of a patient can be collected later on.

Take a look at The 10 Components Of Medical Records In A Hospital for details.

Journal

Expressing disturbing thoughts is essential for people suffering from a mental health disorder. Adding a diary to throw out one’s emotions is the key to getting better.

However, not all patients can express their feelings through words, so it’s a good idea to include drawing, coloring, and other expressive activities.

Chat and Video Calling

Offering video and voice appointments with mental health specialists allows users to reach out to professionals who need counseling. A set of emergency support features can be helpful for patients who require urgent help. This could include:

• Quick emergency calling feature
• Calling someone from a pre-saved list of contacts
• Live chat support

How to Start a Mental Health Platform?

Starting a mental health platform depends on a variety of factors, including the budget, aims, and target audience of a company. The first step to developing a mental health application is to find the best healthcare mobile app development company that understands your vision and works at a cost that your company can afford.

Read about developing custom software for psychologists in private practice.

Revamp Mental Health Care with AI-Powered Apps from Folio3 Digital Health

Interested in making an AI-driven mental health app? At Folio3 Digital Health, we offer expert development services that turn your vision into reality. Our team of skilled designers, developers, and marketers specializes in creating impactful mental healthcare solutions. All our products adhere to HIPAA compliance and utilize the latest HL7 and FHIR interoperability standards to ensure data security and seamless integration.

Conclusion 

Mental health applications have gained popularity because of their benefits, such as 24/7 virtual support, provision of relaxation techniques, etc. The market for these applications is competitive, but with detailed planning and proper execution, you can make a strong presence there. Get in touch with Folio3 Digital Health to explore how we can make tailored solutions for you. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Mental Health Apps Exist?

More than 400 million people download mental health apps online, according to the World Economic Forum. In the global digital health market, one of the fastest-growing sectors is mental health, with an estimated 10,000 apps currently available.

How do Mental Health Apps Make Money?

Some of the common monetization procedures of mental health apps are listed below:

• Pay to download: Users will have to pay to download and use the app.
• In-app purchases: Users can download the app free of cost but have to pay for certain features.
• Recurring subscriptions: Subscription plans are offered to users on a monthly or yearly basis, and there is a free trial for a fixed period.
• Advertising: This aspect needs to be carefully thought out cognitive-behavioral because it disrupts user engagement. It could also lead to the complete abandonment of the app.

How To Develop a Feature-Rich Mental Health Application?

A feature-rich mental health application can only be developed once the target audience, aims, and the type of app has been decided by the developer.  The type of app will determine what features will be included in the application and what capabilities it will offer to its users. This will enable providers to develop a feature-rich application.

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