Considering the current mental health climate, access to digital mental health services for all presents itself as a need in today’s society. PsyIpsum is an opportunity for technology to personalize treatment, across domains, allowing for a new model of physiological and mental-health assessment, coordination and intervention; moving away from inherent biases of equivocal diagnostic models to better account for the individual variable. PsyIpsum is a mobile app that serves as an extension of the clinical-relationship for both client and provider; a personal-global dynamo to assist in work-life balance for the clinician; also a pocket-tool for real-time remote-patient-monitoring for client decision-support. Effectively managing client needs and clinical demand, PsyIpsum improves timing of remote quantitative and qualitative assessments with push-alert check-ins, spontaneous or planned, and deployable therapeutic simulations based on acuity. With an emphasis on secure authentication and storage, PsyIpsum further serves as an institutional resource for community mental-health initiatives, aligning support for common factors of wellness, improving continuity and access to specialized care. Future developments may include integration of client testimonials of proven psychological well-being and resilience to inform PsyIpsum meta-principles overtime.
PsyIpsum’s most successful version (1.5.0) was uploaded on June 1st, 2023 for 90 days with 55 installs by one clinician. In total, there have been 166 invites and 99 successful installs done by one clinician in the year 2023. These statistics are a testament to the application's early success in its developmental stages, while also highlighting the need for PsyIpsum to reach an audience much larger than 166 people. If one clinician is able to reach 166 clients in a mere 90 days, the possibilities are endless for what a team of clinicians would be able to achieve in a larger time frame. When the app was presented to other clinician’s in the field, their reactions spoke volumes of admiration and interest for PsyIpsum and what it means. “This is awesome ... to jump on board of this is like a dream,” Ellen Carrol PhD, APRN remarked, "it's really a dream…I’m really excited.”. Kathleen Early MS, LPC (Athletics Mental Health Counselor) said, “I could see us being able to really even personalize it to more of a student athlete lens, providing additional resources within it..” she continues, “My mind is just spinning with all of the things we could potentially do.”
Grace Stannard is a 20 year old current undergrad student at the University of Vermont. With a major in Public Health Science, and a double minor in Psychological Science and Integrative Health and Wellness Coaching, it is clear that Stannard focuses her academics on the health and wellbeing of the public, the individual, and how both of those aspects are intertwined. These ideas coincide perfectly with the purpose of PsyIpsum. Stannard feels passionately that there is a great need for better mental health care in the United States, and she sees this and experiences it firsthand, as she is a current undergrad student. Stannard, being an aspiring practitioner herself, feels as though PsyIpsum will serve as an innovative tool that works to balance work and life, while also allowing the clinician to feel as though they can better connect with their patients. Yet, she also sees the benefits for students and those receiving care, considering how accessible and private mental health care could become. PsyIpsum and feels like a perfect match to what Stannard believes in, which is why she sprung on the opportunity to become involved in November of 2023, and she now serves as the Research Director of this project.
Michael O’Toole DNP, APRN is the visionary and drive behind the entire project. He first started researching informatics in 2015. O’Toole was working on a national initiative called the Minimum Data Set. O’Toole worked alongside other scholars, and presented on Workforce Forecasting Models, where he was able to realize the critical shortage in Psychiatric Mental Health, Community Health, and Tele-Health. He was first introduced to Tele-Health in 2016 when he was working for the Department of Veteran Affairs. There he was able to understand it and experience it with clients. He then started a private practice after completing his DNP thesis on Suicide Risk Assesment Simulations in 2017. All of this was accomplished while he worked full-time and in person at a Community Health Agency in Bridgeport, CT. Michael O’Toole then took his talents and expertise to Fairfield University in 2018. There he worked to manage psychiatric care for students and also taught a Pharmacology class for three years. During his third year at Fairfield, the pandemic hit and his lectures with DNPs went online. O’Tooles simulations proved to be a great teaching tool, as his practice was the only one in the region to host clinical education online. In 2020, O’Toole was recruited to Sacred Heart and his private practice office closed; he has been working remotely for both since. By the time 2021 came around, O’Toole had a clear vision for the app, and he reached out to the Fairfield University computing /engineering school in hopes of finding interns to help with the project, but there was no luck. In April of 2021 O’Toole moved to Burlington VT. There he recruited a new grad from the Burlington Coding Academy to help code the app that exists now. In September of 2023 that contract with the coder ended, and that is when Grace Stannard applied to be an intern for PsyIpsum. Michael O’Toole DNP, APRN and his long list of accomplishments, experience, and work, exemplify his commitment to the betterment of mental health in society and more specifically college students. O’Toole has worked to impact individuals and communities. With PsyIpsum, the possibilities of what O’Toole could accomplish are limitless.
Previous app installation numbers, testimonials from astounding practitioners in the field, and the passion behind this project combine together to generate enormous support for PsyIpsum and all that it encompasses. It’s apparent that there’s a need for this tool in our society and there is plenty of evidence that emphasizes the positive impact this specific form of telemedicine will generate on the mental health of our communities. PsyIpsum is for us, by us; curated by those who will get great use of the app and have an undeniable drive to encourage others to be able to help themselves. In order to reach a larger audience and to generate greater positive impacts, PsyIpsum is looking for help from collaborators, potential coders, and favoring students to aid in the strategic development of this project. With the help of others who are also passionate about the mental health of individuals and communities as a whole, PsyIpsum can truly be for us, by us.
