4. To pinch a joke from The Viz:
Over 1 million sandwich toasters are bought each
year, making a total of up to 2 million toasted
sandwiches before being put at the back of the
cupboard
5. Tech is elective.
We choose to use it.
The biggest risk for tech in relation to mental
health is being an answer in search of a
question... Like the sandwich toaster
6. People don't suffer mental health difficulties.
Mental health difficulties cause impairments.
The extent to which those impairments
disable you depends on the extent to
which it is possible to either adapt yourself
or you environment
7. Whose behaviour, whose change?
If we talk about behaviour change, who is
that change in benefit of?
The interests of services aren't necessarily
the interests of people with mental health
difficulties or their families
Are you trying to influence their behaviour
for your benefit or for theirs?
8. A dangerous fallacy
“Getting people to be better at using
services is the same as getting them to
have better lives”
This fallacy is reinforced by where the
money currently sits
10. People with mental health difficulties
want...
The same as everyone else, but they might
need to get there a different way
So the question is:
What behaviours do people with mental
health difficulties want to change?
11. Why do we find it difficult to see
people with mental health difficulties
as consumers?
Perhaps because we are conditioned to define
people like me by our conditions, rather than our
desires, hopes, obligations and dreams?
12. What does all of this mean for tech,
behaviour change and mental
health?
What tech does must appeal to an individual
consumer, not a 'map of their needs or
deficiencies'.
A mental health difficulty might impede your ability
to achieve a certain goal, but that goal might not
relate to your mental health difficulty
People must want to change their own behaviour
otherwise they'll never elect to use the tech in
the first place
13. I'm just one person with mental
health difficulties but...
Big role for tech as assistive technology but not
necessarily big investment
More market research, discussion and exploration
with people with mental health difficulties as a
potential market
More small solutions to small problems...
Help us to solve a problem or a need we have,
don't try to solve us as if we were a problem
