 "Lulio, an app that prevents teenage suicides")
Many of the factors that lead to teenage depression are amped up in East Asia. The hyper-competitive school environments in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China are enough to throw anyone’s life out of balance. If you add in the pressures of bullying, body image issues, and a lack of robust school/community counseling programs, it is easy to see how many teens in the region could be going through tough times.
“At the intersection of psychology and technology there’s a lot of new research and ideas taking shape around using mobile and gamification to improve people’s mental health,” says Jamie Chiu, a psychology doctoral candidate and co-founder of Hong Kong-based Lulio. “There’s also a growing body of research on using video games for therapeutic interventions and assessments.”
Lulio aims to bring that research into the real world. By analysing teenagers’ mental health through mobile games, Jamie and her co-founder, Mark Altosaar, hope to gather data that could spot warning signs of depression or even suicidal tendencies.
Jamie comes from a clinical psychology background, and works as a school counselor while studying for her doctorate in psychology. “My training has always been more focused on academia and research – which, honestly speaking, is not the most tech-savvy field.”
In addition to the two founders, Lulio’s team includes consultants and advisors covering everything from psychology research to product testing, and a team of interns.
