ADAM - Anxiety Detection and Management : A Solution to Manage Anxiety at Workplaces and Improve Productivity

Abstract

"Anxiety in workplaces burdens a significant number of employees around the world, making it challenging to reach their goals and increase their productivity. The journey of working to reduce anxiety is a tough one. This is because with mental health being a taboo topic, people tend to avoid seeking professional help, most often because they are scared or embarrassed. This prevents such victims from knowing the severity of their anxiety, and if chronic, could lead to various other illnesses. Hence, it would be beneficial for them to engage in self-assessment and self-management practices while they build up the courage to reach out for help. This project aims to address these problems and design, develop and evaluate a prototype that will help employees facing anxiety to realise the severity of their condition and encourage them to seek professional help, while also providing a few self-managing activities they can follow. Thorough research was conducted through a literature survey to identify the requirements that would best suit the solution and obtain a deeper understanding of anxiety, its problems and possible solutions. In order to get more accurate results on activities to manage anxiety and other requirements, medical professionals were interviewed, and questionnaires were shared to potential users. In Sri Lanka where mental illnesses are considered a social stigma, there is a lack of mental health applications. Hence, to exploit this gap and by considering the requirements identified, ADAM was designed and developed. ADAM will be a solution offered to organisations to assist in managing anxiety amongst employees at workplaces to help improve the overall productivity. The solution received praise by experts and non-expert evaluators who gave feedback on the necessity and usefulness of the proposed solution in helping employees struggling with anxiety identify their severity and work towards managing it.