AvaChat

Use of technology to deliver mental health treatment has been shown to be beneficial and acceptable, and may increase the number of people accessing mental health treatments by overcoming barriers such as remote location of residence and stigma. The benefits may be even greater for those with long-term physical health problems, many of whom have comorbid mental health problems. A promising and innovative technology is the use of ‘talking heads’ (avatars) as the interface between clients and digital diagnostic or therapeutic services.

AvaChat will work with service users to co-design a prototype avatar. This will include investigating the best method of delivering conversation-based interventions for improving mental health and embedding existing speech technology and exemplar conversation-based self-management within an avatar interface.