Research Article
Mobile Peer-Mentoring: An Approach to Make Veterans Seek Mental Health-Care Support a Normality
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/icst.collaboratecom.2014.257844, author={Rizwana Rizia and Nadiyah Johnson and A. B. M. Kowser Patwary and Golam Mushih Tanimul Ahsan and Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed and Zeno Franco and Katinka Hooyer and Bob Curry and Mark Flower}, title={Mobile Peer-Mentoring: An Approach to Make Veterans Seek Mental Health-Care Support a Normality}, proceedings={10th IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing}, publisher={IEEE}, proceedings_a={COLLABORATECOM}, year={2014}, month={11}, keywords={veteran mental healthcare oef/oif veterans mobile computing symptom monitoring electronic peer-mentorship socio-technical systems collaboration systems}, doi={10.4108/icst.collaboratecom.2014.257844} }- Rizwana Rizia
Nadiyah Johnson
A. B. M. Kowser Patwary
Golam Mushih Tanimul Ahsan
Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed
Zeno Franco
Katinka Hooyer
Bob Curry
Mark Flower
Year: 2014
Mobile Peer-Mentoring: An Approach to Make Veterans Seek Mental Health-Care Support a Normality
COLLABORATECOM
IEEE
DOI: 10.4108/icst.collaboratecom.2014.257844
Abstract
Veterans often face great difficulties during the community and family reintegration after military deployment. Mental health problems resulting from war related traumatic experiences often make social readjustment very difficult. Many research suggests that peer-mentorship can be very effective for mental-health problems. Dryhootch (DH), a community organization led by veterans, has implemented a veteran peer-mentor program. The primary objective of DH program is to provide peer-mentor support to veterans going through social readjustment. In this paper we propose to expand DH’s paper-based peer-mentor program with a mobile-based system, iPeer. The proposed expansion improves the efficiency of the current DH approach by augmenting the existing social process with mobile technologies used extensively by younger veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. We provide a description of the evolution of this mobile-based peer-mentor support tool through collaborative design research. We also present our initial usability findings in order to demonstrate the improved efficiency offered by the augmented technology.