JGP: July & August Update (Part 1):

I decided to start blogging monthly updates on my Jamie\’s Gapyear Program (JGP) project. Here\’s a quick recap on the progresses I\’ve made the last two months.

I proposed to Jamie Lin while applying for the project that I want to explore the possibilities of digitalising resources for mental health. I believe digitalising mental health resources can increase its scale, and combat the stigmatic and financial challenges one might face when seeking help.

In the beginning, I wanted to build a platform with a database of different psychotherapists in Taiwan. By building a platform, I can concentrate all mental health resources in one place, since it is currently very scattered. The platform will benefit both the client and therapist; It improves the client\’s convenience when seeking help and offers exposure to therapists.

To pursue this goal, I needed coding skills and a better understanding of the mental health ecosystem in Taiwan. Thus, July was mostly spent teaching myself how to code in Python and reaching out to different industry professionals.

I had a change of heart around late July. After reaching out to a few therapists, I realised there is a massive gap between the supply of therapists to client demand. The therapists I talked to are overbooked and on occasions had to turn clients away. Therefore, I realised there is no incentive for therapists to use my platform as they neither need exposure nor new clients.

I needed a new direction.

I decided to focus on how to scale up mental health resources to address the shortage in supply. Around this time, I also finished learning the basics of Python and started looking into the mechanics of LLMs. I started looking into the possibilities of a Chatbot that can offer mental health advice.