M&M: Deep learning aided multi-facet mental health support tool for College Students

Abstract

College students are experiencing increasing rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders. However, traditional face-to-face consultations are not always accessible, and the current digital interventions cannot provide the richness of an in-person consultation. To address such problems, we developed a smartphone application called Mental Mentor (M&M) to help college students cope with their anxieties especially those related to their academic performance. M&M application applies a retrieval-based model to provide academic mentoring advice and a deep learning-based model for emotional support. Results show that our M&M not only provides effective responses for emotional support but is also helpful with students' academic coaching.