The Helping Helpers team focused on improving the mental health of health care workers throughout the Treasure Valley. When the team learned that doctors have the highest suicide rate out of any profession in the country, they chose to take action on promoting wellness for hospital workers.
In response to this need, the team approached their project using the following How Might We question: How might we give healthcare workers at Saint Alphonsus Hospital the necessary tools to prevent and work through depression, stress, and PTSD?
After meeting with doctors, nurses, and therapists from the region, the group partnered with Jillian Vaughn (a nurse at Saint Alphonsus) as an end user. Jillian gave the team insight on what it’s like to work in a hospital and what she feels is the best way to help improve her colleagues’ and her own work experience. The team then brought these insights to a collaboration with Elizabeth Anderson, the wellness coordinator at Saint Alphonsus, and came up with what they felt would be the most useful and practical solution. The end product is the Helping Helpers app. It contains links to all of the wellness activities Saint Alphonsus provides, reminds the user of why supporting their wellness is important, and tracks the number of wellness activities the user has completed. The team created a wireframe layout of the app and then worked on front-end design and back-end development.
