How Triumf Health supports the children affected by COVID-19
The coronavirus creates uncertainty and is temporarily changing nearly all aspects of daily living, which understandably can cause distress and anxiety. Although children are not specifically in the risk group, they are still affected by the crisis, already simply through the information load from media. For kids with underlying illness, the access to care is likely to be disrupted and heightened safety measures may need to be employed to ensure their already compromised health won’t suffer from further setbacks. Beyond the changes that can occur in disease management, all children are universally vulnerable to the mental burden of isolation, confusion, and worry about themselves or their close ones getting infected.
Triumf health game has been created to support the behavioural health of pediatric patients (7-14 yr) and currently features pathways for cancer, diabetes, asthma, surgery and weight problems. Through continuous personalised screening and support, our health app aims to identify, prevent and/or lessen the potential psychological problems that can occur during chronic illness with the underlying aim to induce positive behavioural change. Our platform can additionally be used to deliver standardised operative information to kids (e.g. regarding hygiene and trustworthy sources of information).
In response to the COVID-19, we are also developing an extension to the platform to support all kids, irrespective of their current health situation. It is expected that mental health problems will peak both among kids and adults because of the stressful times - we want to prevent that from happening. We’re actively communicating and collaborating with institutions that look to support children through digital tools and will use these channels to ensure our app can reach to as many children as possible.
We're planning to use Triumf's environment to deliver information related to COVID-19, including how to protect oneself, consequences (i.e. isolation), how to self-manage during the outbreak and address concerns that may develop due to the novel situation. The aim is to provide a safe environment through which to deliver up-to-date information related to COVID-19 and relieve anxiety amongst children.
How does Triumf health game support children’s health?
Our aim is to deliver health education and psychological support in an engaging and fun way by using gameplay. Children can learn about health behaviours through helping other citizens in the Triumfland city. Interactive gamified setting is used in Triumf intervention to put theories of emotions, coping, behavior and behavior change into practical use. We support the mental and physical health of children through the following action points:
1. help children better understand their health and wellbeing
2. offer children external support to induce internal motivation and optimise their health-related behaviours,
3. offer children cognitive challenge and distraction, but also activity-based learning of healthy behaviours,
4. profile and screen the well-being of children and offer psychoeducation and/or coping techniques accordingly and thereby,
5. support the formation of better self-understanding and constructive health behaviors, such as physical activity, nutrition and personal hygiene.
The aim of Triumf solution is to improve the quality of life and mental wellbeing. By doing so, the implementation of our health game can result in long-term cost-avoidance (prevention of mental health conditions), cost reduction (offering "digital first" option for those with early symptoms) and freeing up resources (so critical cases can continue receiving care).
Our solution is listed on international app reviewr ORCHA's platform as one of the TOP health application for children, with a high quality score of 81%. We've also published research on the game here.
Are you dedicated to support children’s health during COVID-19?
We are working hard to support as many kids as possible. If you’re a health care professional or working in public health, get in touch through kaari@triumf.health to see how we can create healthier futures together.