Clearbridge Mobile Adds New Features to Mental Health App to Help Adolescents and Young Adults Increase Psychological Resilience

TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2021 /CNW/ - Clearbridge Mobile is proud to have supported and facilitated the latest round of updates applied to the JoyPop app. The JoyPop app aims to improve the psychological resilience of those within vulnerable populations and students transitioning to University through a set of activities, games, and reflection. These new updates provide greater functionality and accessibility for a wide range of target users.

Working with Dr. Christine Wekerle and her team, Clearbridge Mobile translated academic research and previous insights gained from working with other healthcare organizations like Dynacare, CANet, and Crohn's and Colitis Canada, into engaging app features that would best resonate with adolescents and young adults. The first version of the app was launched in 2018 so that research studies could begin to gather insights and capture data to facilitate other positive mental health initiatives.

"Working with the various experts in Clearbridge, it was a wonderful experience to learn how the app was seen as relevant to the designer's lives, that they could relate to its goals and see how it would have been a resource to their younger selves," says Dr. Christine Wekerle, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University.  "From the colour palette to the tag line, "Happiness starts with you" to the user-friendly and intuitive use of water sounds for easing to sleep, the design process has maintained the focus on positives and consistency through the user experience."

Clearbridge Mobile's design thinking process reslts in a product roadmap, highlighting features to introduce into the app as it progresses through its lifecycle. Now, in the "next" phase of the project, the latest features introduced include:

• The app interface and functionality now support French-language users.
• "Elder/Mentor" has been added as a contact type in the in-app calling feature to support those in Indigenous communities.
• "SleepEase" has been added as an activity aimed to help calm users as they try to fall asleep.

Other features of the app include:

• In-app calling to reach population-specific helplines for immediate support.
• Breathing exercises, games, and doodling to help users express emotions and manage stress levels.
• Journaling prompts to help users recognize, process, and write down their thoughts, struggles and feelings.
• A mood rating function that enables users to rate their mood, have the option to complete an activity to cope based on their mood, and monitor activities' effectiveness.

"Clearbridge Mobile has been great to work with as we implemented the JoyPop app as a support for students making the transition to university," says Dr. Aislin Mushquash, Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University. 

"We found that using it more often was associated with improvements in emotion regulation and depressive symptoms."

Data gathered from the numerous research studies, and feedback from participants also support Mushquash's claims.

"I was really impressed with the fact that it brought my attention more to how I was feeling," says an app user from the Lakehead research study. "So, instead of just acknowledging that I was stressed and then managing with that, it really brought attention to why I was feeling that and just acknowledging that which I thought was really cool."

"As a company, it is our goal to develop mobile applications that positively impact the lives of the user. Having had previous experience developing healthcare-related solutions allowed us to understand the needs of the user better, and ultimately helped us achieve that with this app," says Clearbridge Mobile CEO Deepak Chopra. "We continue to expand into the healthcare space to support various health conditions and initiatives, and aim to make a meaningful impact through our mobile, cloud, and web solutions."

In tandem with being used for research studies, the JoyPop app is also available to the general public through the App Store.

For more information on the JoyPop app, click here.

About Clearbridge Mobile
Clearbridge Mobile is an award-winning full-stack mobile app development company that provides user-centric design and engineering services to the world's top enterprises, helping them meet their digital initiatives. With more than 250 apps successfully delivered for enterprise clients like Dynacare, Crohn's and Colitis Canada, Participaction, Bell Canada, TD Bank, and Rogers Communications, Clearbridge Mobile is the right partner to help you capitalize on the momentum of today's digital consumer.

About McMaster University
Founded in 1887, McMaster University is ranked in the world's Top 75 by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. Home to more than 70 research centres and institutes, McMaster University comprises the Arts & Science Program and six Faculties: The DeGroote School of Business, and the Faculties of Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences.

About Lakehead University
Dynamic, modern, and highly learner-centred, we acknowledge all of our students as valued leaders of tomorrow, whose education and success are most paramount to our institution. Both campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia promise the total university experience: a blend of academic excellence and opportunity with a rich variety of social and recreational activities. We also promise excellence in research; Lakehead is the proud host to eleven Canada Research Chairs and revolutionary facilities such as our world-renowned Paleo-DNA Laboratory and our Biorefining Research Institute.

SOURCE Clearbridge Mobile Inc.

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