Development of weCope, a mobile app for illness self-management in schizophrenia

• Autor(a) principal: Simões de Almeida, Raquel
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Jacinto, Tiago, Couto, Ana, Marques, António, Queirós, Cristina M., Martins, Constantino L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/13793
• topic: Schizophrenia; illness self-management; mobile applications; technology

Objective To describe the development of weCope, a Portuguese mobile app for people with schizophrenia. Methods The development of weCope followed 4 stages: I-102 people with psychotic disorders completed an online questionnaire; II-a multidisciplinary focus group was conducted among five mental health professionals; III-we developed the app; IV-9 participants used weCope during 8 weeks to assess its efficiency. Results weCope targets coping with voices, problem solving, goals setting and stress management, and results indicated that: weCope improved symptoms, sense of recovery and personal and social functioning; 59% of the participants were willing to download an application for illness self-management; professionals revealed some concerns about mHealth but enhanced the high importance to develop these apps; usability testing revealed that 89% considered weCope useful for illness self-management. However, the more years with mental illness, the less importance is given to a mobile application for this purpose. Discussion weCope was developed through a comprehensive development process and may contribute to a subjective perception of the patient’s better well-being and health condition.