ZeroTherapy

Inspiration

Mental health problems are increasing worldwide. There has been a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the last decade. Mental health conditions now cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability. Around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Approximately one in five people in post-conflict settings have a mental health condition. (Source: WHO)

Anonymity is the way to build a bridge to the trust needed for young people to share often deeply personal information. We hear from children and young people who are bullied, who have been sexually abused, who are having feelings they don’t understand, and who are self-harming. These young people need to feel truly safe with their counselors. Allowing them to remain anonymous and in control of their therapeutic journey is the bridge that can lead them to a place of trust.

We aim to mitigate this issue by introducing ZeroTherapy.

What it does

ZeroTherapy provides a platform where you can join anonymous sessions led by counselors and therapists. No matter what's troubling you, get the support you need, right here, right now, and that too anonymously.

ZeroTherapy leverages Semaphore and zero-knowledge proofs to preserve the user’s identity.

As an individual, you can connect with counselors, discuss your concerns, and unleash a better you. As an institution, you can create a happier community. Colleges, corporates, incubators, government bodies, or anyone can join this decentralized platform and build emotionally resilient communities.

How does it work?

ZeroTherapy leverages Semaphore and Zero-Knowledge proofs to preserve the user’s identity.

For Hosts: A counselor creates a session, which can be secured with an access code if it is for a private setting (for institutions like colleges, corporates, etc.). Start the counseling session when you are ready to accept questions from participants. Once you are ready to answer questions, you may pause the session. In paused mode, participants are able to join the session to view the questions but are not able to post new questions. Hosts may answer questions via native video conferencing that we've developed using Huddle01 or through comments.

For Participants: A participant may join a counseling session on the home page. If it is a secured session, the participant will be prompted for the access code. Once verified, the participant may post questions and/or can also anonymously vote for which questions they want to be answered, ensuring that the discussion is moderated by the community.

Use of Sponsor Technology

We have integrated Huddle01 into the platform as it provides us with a robust video conferencing infrastructure that is absolutely essential for ZeroTherapy. The fact that participants can join sessions anonymously and sessions can be gated make Huddle01 the perfect choice for us. We are also working on integrating Push Protocol (Push Chat) to enhance the platform.

Challenges we ran into

• No one from our team knew anything about zero-knowledge before the hackathon. We had a steep learning curve in learning ZK technology.
• Understanding zero-knowledge technology proved to be a massive hurdle since there aren't many valuable resources on the internet about it.
• Unknown bugs :/

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Developed our first zero-knowledge-based working project.
• Through this project, we can create an impact and we're proud to have accomplished the project in such a short time and look forward to introducing it to the entire world and making the world a healthier place for people suffering from mental problems.

What we learned

“Effective planning makes the execution smooth”. We spent quite a time brainstorming on choosing the right problem to solve. After that, we planned everything- from blueprints to wireframes, from MVP development to the final development. We divided our product development into phases with deadlines and that planning ultimately helped us to smoothly execute all the ideas that we had. And yes, we learned how to work in a team, how to complete tasks in a fast-paced environment, how to bring life to ideas, and so on.

What's next for ZeroTherapy

We look forward to continuing to build this product after the hackathon as we believe this product has potential and our team can make it big. We will also start building the community and get their feedback to further improve and expand the vision. The next step for ZeroTherapy would be to help numerous people all around the globe to connect with counselors and help them in overcoming their mental problems as well as any problems related to any other matter that makes them feel underconfident.