Tools for Practice Tuesday: Manatee

One of the many potentials of mental health apps is to be able to identify, measure, and track symptoms. Some of the apps that I have tried do this but the challenge is to do this in a meaningful way for all the stakeholders. In this case therapists, parents, and children.

Manatee does a wonderful job making space for all those involved in a youth’s treatment to set goals, add skills, and reward progress. In speaking with the co-founder, Damayanti Dipayana, as a parent she set out to collaborate with child psychologists to design something meaningful. The result is a well thought out and executed mental health app.

Children, parents, and therapists can create individual goals based on needs. There is also a place to create customization skill prompts and write out the steps…

The assigned therapist has the opportunity to track that progress via a dashboard…

From the case management perspective there were two things that I really enjoyed about Manatee. First, the co-creation is an important feature as there is ample opportunity for the child, therapist, and parent to customize the goal, skills, and rewards. Also the focus on earning rewards is often an important thing overlooked.

Secondly, technology can often be a great add on to help patients stay focused on goals in between face to face sessions and manatee is no exception to this. They provide feedback to all on how they are doing with goals and rewards. Youth are also given the opportunity to participate in this as well with tracking progress.

If you work with children, I would highly recommend using Manatee. You can find out more by going to their website.

You can also follow them on social media on

Twitter: www.twitter.com/getmanatee

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/getmanatee/

Tools For Practice Tuesday: MotiSpark

After getting used to my new role as an adjunct professor, I have finally been motivated to get back into blogging and sharing cool things that I demo. Although it hasn’t been for lack of motivation, its been about time management. Speaking of motivation…

…This week’s tool is focused on motivation. MotiSpark comes with the promise of “Personalized video nudges that educate and inspire”. Well I wanted to put that to the test. With fairly easy set up the MotiSpark allows you some general goals to achieve. Then it gives you prompts and inspiration via your mobile device to work on goals that were laid out. The best part is that you co-create the program based on your answers to questions, and use your own images and videos…

I was a bit skeptical but also was thinking about how these days we often take in information in bite sized ways. I spoke with founder Ariel McNicol who reported that they are looking for even more customization in the future for certain conditions and populations. She talked about some of the success they have had in engaging people with education about diabetes and those in dialysis treatment.

The tech skeptic in me was wondering about the evidence to back this product. They were smart and have the science to support this product on their “science” page. That brief/non-invasive prompts have potential to change behaviors.

If you are looking for a creative way to perhaps motivate behavior change. Check out MotiSpark. You can find out more at their website.

You can also follow them on social media on:

Twitter – https://twitter.com/SmartSparkMe

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MotiSpark/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartspark-inc-/

and Instagram – www.instagram.com/motispark