poster presented at WISH 2019 at CHI 2019 Write Mind: an interactive journaling tool for caregivers including sentiment analysis and resource recommendations

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WriteMind: a Journal for Caregivers
Leveraging Sentiment Analysis to Provide Resource Recommendations
Vivian Genaro Motti, Olga Lorenz, Chris Hill, Mehak Khokar
Nathaniel Kamau, Jesus Mejilas Garcia, Laura Schoen
George Mason University
WriteMind is an interactive journal that uses sentiment
analysis of diary entries to provide resource
recommendations for caregivers. WriteMind helps with self-
care, raising caregivers’ awareness about their sentiments.
Caregivers are responsible for numerous stressful activities
and feel often overwhelmed. They face problems that range
from socio-economic burden to emotional distress.
Caregivers are not always trained professionals, and often
execute their activities voluntarily.
WriteMind
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[9] World Health Organization et al. 2016. Working for health and
growth: investing in the health workforce. (2016)
The potential of technology to support caregiving is promising to provide socio-emotional support, to improve self-care,
and to stimulate cognitive functions. WriteMind raise users awareness about resources. Despite being specified and
implemented after an in-depth interview with caregivers, additional evaluations showed that not all caregivers have the
time to sit and write about their days. Unless it is already a habit, it may be challenging to foster adoption.
Discussion
Technology advances contributed to provide socio-
emotional support for caregivers and older adults,
however most solutions focus on unidirectional
channels, primarily giving voice to the elderly,
instead of helping to fulfill caregivers’ needs.
WriteMind is a journaling tool that enables
caregivers to express their emotions, thoughts, and
feelings and to receive relevant resource
recommendations. WriteMind is a low-cost,
accessible, and intuitive solution. As future work,
we will integrate WriteMind with voice assistants,
so that caregivers who do not have the habit to
write can talk about their concerns. The automated
transcription of the voice recognition could serve
for sentiment analysis and recommendations of
services and products. There are concerns related
to the accuracy of the algorithms of recognition,
and the unfamiliarity of caregivers with voice-based
interaction; as well as privacy and security
concerns associated to the tool, for users to fully
benefit from the journal they have to trust the
system.
Conclusion
The aging of the world’s population affects healthcare and
caregiving services [6], impacting service delivery, healthcare
professionals and direct care workforce. 3.5 million additional
healthcare professionals will be needed by 2030 [5], with
geriatrics and mental health standing out as priorities for
specialized workplaces [9]. Caregiving services are
increasingly needed, but they are also scarce, expensive and
difficult to scale, especially when provided individually without
technology. To provide care, monitoring and interventions,
caregivers assist older adults with companionship, reminders
for medication, daily living activities, physical exercises, and
cognitive stimulation.
Caregivers feel overwhelmed due to their high workload.
They are often untrained and subject to high stress levels [7]
[2]. The shortage of care professionals increases the demand
for caregiving services. Such activities, unless augmented by
technologies, will result in poorer individual outcomes [3].
Caring from a distance is more challenging, emotionally and
logistically [1]. Thus, providing home health care becomes
one of the best interventions to support comfortable aging [8],
especially when technologies that respond to the growing
demand for caregivers are integrated [4].
[ Five mockups of WriteMind illustrating login and menu (top),
account settings (middle), and diary entry (bottom). ]
References
Features
WriteMind was implemented in Ruby on Rails and React to enable caregivers to express their thoughts and feelings
by writing. The project specification derives from an analysis of caregivers’ needs for self-care and socio-emotional
support. WriteMind integrates sentiment analysis and recommendation algorithms to match users’ needs to relevant
resources, providing: 1) diary entry, 2) calendar and weekly digest, 3) sentiment analysis, and 4) recommendations.
2) Calendar and Weekly Digests
The calendar shows users the
entries posted, providing an
overview of their sentiment
throughout time and allowing
users to reflect on their previous
days to raise awareness, and
encourage them to seek for
external help if needed.
To aid with habit formation, the
visualization of the entries gives
users a sense of accomplishment.
Users can opt to receive weekly
digests via email or using
WriteMind, including a breakdown
of their week and recommended
resources.
3) Sentiment Analysis
The text analysis on the diary
entry serves to assess the
affective state of the user, based
on the words used and the
sentiments expressed. Sentiment
analysis seeks for subjective
assessment of users’ emotions,
and helps to monitor their
variation along time.
An emoticon is presented when
users complete their posts
enabling them to reflect on their
feelings raising their awareness.
The calendar view includes all the
sentiments registered for prior
posts.
1) Diary Entry
Analogously to a white page of a
notebook, the diary entry allows
users to write about their routines
and feelings. A prompt message is
initially presented on the interface
(’How is your day going?’).
Once the text is posted, it is
analyzed and a sentiment score
calculated. Keywords are used to
show relevant recommendations
matching users’ needs, for
instance if the caregiver is
seeking for assisted living
facilities, a list of potential
services is provided.
4) Resource Recommendation
Based on the needs that users
express in a post, relevant
products and services is
presented. The advice is fed by
an intelligent recommendation
system that match keywords to
recommendations. It is up to the
caregiver to access and use the
recommendation as relevant.
Recommendations include
products, services, and social
support, such as: housing and
wellness services, hospices,
groceries, transportation, mental
health, faith, community and
social groups
Motivations