Students of Informatics Dept. Achieve 17 Best National Ideas with the Application called Curhatin

Kampus ITS, ITS News – The lack of awareness among Indonesians on mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic situation can undoubtedly cause problems. In response to that, three students of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) successfully created Curhatin, an online psychology consulting service application.

They are Bagas Juwono Priambodo, Ihdiannaja, and Yuki Yanuar Ratna. The three of them are students of the Department of Informatics, class of 2017. They created an application that offers online psychological consulting services.

Bagas Juwono Priambodo, the team leader, said that Indonesian people lack concern for mental health. Many citizens still think that mental health consultation is not necessary. “Some of them are even ashamed to have their mental health checked and consulted,” he revealed.

This young man, who is familiarly called Bano, continued that in the current situation of Covid-19 pandemic, psychological problems in the Indonesian society is increasing. Excessive fear and worry are some of the reasons that call for the emergence of mental health problems today. “But even so, this does not necessarily make people aware of the importance of mental health,” he added.

Bano added that his team tried to help the community realize and become more concerned about mental health, especially in a pandemic situation like today. Thus, they implemented the idea to create an online psychological counseling application called Curhatin. “Maybe this innovation can make people not to be lazy and no longer embarrassed to consult their mental wellbeing,” he hoped.

This student further explained that Curhatin is an android-based mobile application. This application is equipped with various psychological services that aim to help the community. Its services include antistress tips, consultations with psychologists, stress healing methods, stress monitoring, and personal journal-keeping records.

Bano said that the feature of consultation with psychology experts would be sending messages and making calls (voice or video calls). People can freely choose an option according to their individual needs and preference. “We plan to coordinate with the Persatuan Dokter Spesialis Kedokteran Jiwa Indonesia (PDSKJI),” he explained.

In his sixth semester, this student elaborated on the concept of some features in the Curhatin application. The plan is to present features of the antistress tips service, stress monitoring, and several other tips in videos and articles. “This feature will also educate people about mental health,” he explained.

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Bano is targeting around July or August to get the application implemented. Soon, they will also determine whether there will be any cost and consulting method with the psychologists. “As of now, we have not decided on the cost and the method,” he said.

This team is supervised by four lecturers: Ridho Rahman Hariadi S.Kom., M.Sc. (the main supervisor), Siska Arifiani S.Kom., M.Kom., Adhatus Solichah Ahmadiyah S.Kom., M.Sc., and Hadziq Fabroyir S.Kom., Ph.D.

Thanks to their vast concern for the mental health of Indonesian citizens, through the application idea of ​​Curhatin, Bano and their team had a major success in the INA IDEAthon Covid-19 competition held by the Ministry of Research and Technology/National Research and Innovation Agency (Kemenristek/BRIN). They made through the 17 best ideas, which means that they have won the competition against other 5,590 ideas from all over Indonesia announced last Friday (8/5).

This alumnus of the PB Soedirman Cojantung High School hopes that Curhatin can help the community’s psychological problems in this current pandemic or even during the post-epidemic. Bano hopes this application can be implemented and run according to its original purpose. “I also hope that people can begin to realize the importance of mental health,” he concluded hopefully.