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DIRECT - Professional psychological support on the road

Together with the Freie Universität Berlin, the Swiss Red Cross and other partners, we have developed a platform for e-mental health projects that has been successfully used in studies and practical projects.

Direct App

The assignment

The FU Berlin needed software to conduct an EU-funded study in the field of psychological support for refugees. It quickly became apparent that the infrastructure created could also be used for other use cases.

With the participation of other partners, the research platform DIRECT was created, which is used to conduct internet and smartphone-based clinical psychological studies.

direct app

Our solution

What began as a support service for Arabic-speaking refugees is now used in a wide variety of psychological intervention contexts. With DIRECT projects, those affected receive low-threshold psychological support and help for self-help - all supervised and guided by professional therapists.

The DIRECT system was built and developed by us from the ground up. It consists of a mobile app for iOS and Android as well as a web app for those affected, a content management system for content editors and an administration interface for those responsible for studies and therapists. The idea behind it: To provide an infrastructure that can be used by many different organisations to conduct studies and interventions.

The Swiss Red Cross, for example, uses the platform to offer SUI to people who have had to leave their country of origin and now live in Switzerland. It offers simply prepared and illustrated information on various everyday topics, step-by-step instructions, exercises and local offers to cope with life in Switzerland and related challenges. The FU Berlin uses DIRECT to investigate the effectiveness of smartphone-based interventions in several studies, providing effective help directly to the study participants.

We appreciate the competent advice, flexibility and reliability of Hybrid Heroes. Thanks to these qualities, our concept design was turned into a user-friendly app that we are successfully using in several international studies.
Sebastian Burchert, Freie Universität Berlin
Project leader

Next steps

The DIRECT platform is constantly being expanded. The roadmap includes exciting topics such as the use of machine learning, interoperability with other health systems and the publication of the software or parts of it as an open source project.

But already now, new practice partners are regularly starting on the platform, using DIRECT to implement their scientific studies in the field of E-Mental Health.

Get in touch

We look forward to your project!

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