Intelligent nano-worlds: A new ICT based tool for mental health care of children living under social vulnerability

Abstract

The latest estimates of UNICEF and United Nations present a complex picture related with children living under social vulnerability. Approximately, one-half of the estimated 57.4 million people displaced by war around the world are children, most of whom have been separated from their families. In the same line, many countries (especially the developing ones) present a lack of specialized professionals and resources to provide mental care and rehabilitation services. Thus, children who are under institutional care, frequently present some kind of resistance to the psychological intervention. On those grounds, this paper presents a new proposal with the aim of providing support for infant psychotherapy (diagnosis and intervention) focused on this vulnerable population. Our approach relies on the new idea of incorporating the “interactive and ludic nano-worlds” (that are special sceneries inside a micro-world focused on the patient’s profile). Likewise, the developed system uses intelligent ICT tools, and an expert system to generate automatically intervention guidelines. This proposal has been tested with 124 children and has reached encouraging results.