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App Documentation
Building Resilience Breathing App/ Breathing with Kitty
Young people age between 10 -14.
To help young people age between 10-14 to manage anxiety, offer support and build resilience through the breathing techniques that appear as interactive animations in the app. Children and young people will have the tools at their fingertips to reduce anxiety, monitor their wellbeing and manage their mental state in between appointments and away from services.
The application is expected to be used at home or whenever it is needed. It may be deployed in a therapy session. This application is applicable to all, not just those children currently accessing CAMHS.
#####What is the need?
Anxiety is a feeling of fear or panic. According to Anxiety UK, as many as 1 in 6 young people will experience an anxiety problem at some point in their life. Young people with anxiety usually experience anxiety in three ways:
- generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
- panic attacks
- phobias
The first iteration of this application, during the development of the working prototype, will focus on providing a solution for GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder). GAD affects 1 in 25 people in the UK and young people who have GAD worry a lot of the time and the anxiety makes doing every day things difficult.
Once of the ways to reduce the feeling of fear and the physical response this elicits – increased heart rate, dry mouth, etc., is thorough deep breathing. Deep breathing also goes by the names of diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing, and paced respiration. When you breathe deeply, the air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs, and the lower belly rises.
Shallow breathing limits the diaphragm's range of motion. The lowest part of the lungs doesn't get a full share of oxygenated air. That can make you feel short of breath and anxious.
Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure. The breathing games should be fun and calming, and aesthetically pleasing. The games in the app will provide a focal point - The key to eliciting the relaxation response lies in shifting your focus from stressors to deeper, calmer rhythms — and having a focal point is essential (click here for more info)
This is aimed at young people age 10-14 who are able to take self-directed learning. Although primarily aimed at those CYP accessing services, this app could also be used as a general wellbeing tool for CYP in the same age group (and, to be honest, any adults that have a penchant for cute cat animations!) and therefore used to promote self-care and raise awareness about mental health and how to reduce anxiety through breath focus.
- User account with login and password
- Storage of name so that user is greeted at each login
- Instructions on how to practice deep abdominal breathing
- Animated Cat avatar gam ‘Breathe with Kitty’ against which users will sync their breath
- Rewards system via gold stars which users collect after each game
Proposed release train:
MVP
- User login capability
- Deep breathing pop up instructions
- How to get use breathing sync instructions
- Animation of breathing kitty
- Gold star reward (but not collected)
Release 2
- Naming of cat avatar feature ‘what’s my name?’
- Collecting of reward stars against user account
- Other ‘Breathe with Kitty’ animations for additional anxiety disorders
- Why you might feel anxious guide
Release 3
- Additional breathing game: Blow the clouds through mic
- Additional relaxation game: float the leaf
Release 4
- Choose your avatar: Kitty becomes dog, otter or squirrel – user can choose which one they want to see appear in the breath focus game
On a mobile device or web app for self-directed learning. The initial prototype will be developed on a PWA for full accessibility, moving to an app for the first iteration.
- Dragon in the attic
- Headspace
- Luminosity (style of games)
#####Safeguarding considerations