Mentemia app

Clinical review

Reviewer: Ashley Macpherson, Clinical Psychologist, Still Mind Clinical Psychology
Date of review: April 2020
Comments: The Mentemia app aims to support and improve wellbeing by monitoring mood. It is most useful for people who are well but a little off balance during these COVID times and people who feel that they are “not their normal selves” and are looking for some direction and structure to get back on track. I don’t think this is that helpful for anyone who is depressed or anxious as there is just too much other content on it. Users may get to know what impacts how they feel and learn some skills to focus their attention elsewhere. On the “About Page”, “We’ve all got mental health – how’s yours?” This statement is confusing and doesn’t make sense as it is ambiguous as to whether “mental health” is a good or bad thing. Also the App seems to mostly be about mental wellbeing and this to some people is a completely different thing. It would make more sense to make the title “Mental Wellbeing – How’s yours?”.

Overall, the information on offer is helpful and is well laid out and easy to access on the internet but the functionality of the app isn’t as good.

• The COVID-19 information is helpful but I’m not sure what the “personality quiz” adds to the app. People may be feeling different emotions on different days and may not find being categorised that helpful. 
• It isn’t clear who the target audience is – John Kirwan may appeal to men but Jazz and Possum are probably not going to appeal to many people older than 30. Depending on who the latest speaker is may determine how connected the user feels about how useful the app is. 
• The app sells itself as “science and psychologist informed” but the people talking have “lived experience” and maybe this should be mentioned as this is also valuable and prepares the user for who they will be listening to. 
• The “Try this” category has some good ideas but if someone is feeling stressed they may not engage with some of the titles.
• Mentemia has some useful ideas but there are other apps out there that have more functionality and are more targeted to specific demographics or issues (such as Headspace, Calm, Smiling Mind etc.) 

New Zealand relevance: The NZ media, sports and other personalities will make this more relevant to New Zealand and some of the short messages are delivered in a way that is empathic, comforting and helpful.
Safety concerns: Good to have the link to 1737 but it doesn’t make it clear what people should do if the person is suicidal (other than on the website under Privacy Policy).

Clinical review

Reviewer: Jeremy Steinberg, GP, FRNZCGP
Date of review: April 2020
Comments: This mental wellbeing app has the following features: a personality quiz, a “wheel of kindness” which generates ideas for showing kindness to others, a “worry map” which is an action plan section, guided breathing, and the explore feature which has helpful articles some of which have a COVID-19 focus.
The app is very well polished but is missing some features common to apps of this type like guided audio meditations, a module-based CBT course, and mental health screening questionnaires. I am not quite clear on the value of the personality quiz, but it might be interesting for users.

User review

Reviewer: Member of the public, Auckland 
Date of review: June 2020
Comments: New Zealand local content. Easy to understand information. Things that I could apply to my life immediately.