Call for applicants for an industrial doctorate post for the development of a craving support tool

The Osonament day-care centre for drug addiction is aimed at people with drug dependency problems who are in need of support to improve their quality of life, achieve abstinence and promote social rehabilitation. The intervention employed by the centre uses programs which vary depending on the consumption needs of the individual being treated: the Low Demand Harm Reduction Program (for individuals who are still active consumers who have no motivation for change), the High Demand Harm Reduction Program (for people who have already begun the abstinence process who need support to prevent relapses), and the Reinsertion Program (for people who are in an abstinence phase, before being integrated into the community).

For people who are in the High Demand Harm Reduction Program, dealing with cravings is crucial to determining whether an individual continues with their treatment, since it is the most common reason why people drop out of therapy. As a result, the daycentre employs cognitive-behavioural strategies to work on the thoughts, feelings and behaviours which occur during the abstinence period to be able to manage them in order to prevent a relapse. Nevertheless, it is clear that when a person is not at a daycentre or if they fail to attend for several days, such as during weekends and holidays: craving increase and the risk of a relapse rises.

For this reason, Osonament, together with the Digital Care Research group of the Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya , with the support of the Fundació TIC Salut Social, proposes designing a new product for mobile devices that will help prevent relapses in individuals who are in the abstinence phase of addiction. The goal is for people who come to the daycentre who are engaging in therapy to support abstinence during the week to prevent relapses, to be supported at weekends or at specific times when they do not have the direct support of a professional. The app, through chatbot technology, allows them to receive the slogans and techniques developed during sessions they have attended in the daycentre in a targeted manner so as to be better able to deal with the risk factors and to anticipate any relapses, thus maintaining abstinence.

Objectives:

1. Describe the needs, difficulties and risk factors of individuals who are being treated to support abstinence for substances during times of craving.
2. Explore the factors which could help prevent relapses
3. Design and implement an app using a chatbot to improve adherence to treatment and prevent relapses
4. Evaluate the impact of the app on the prevention of relapses and the maintenance of short-term abstinence (post-intervention), and medium- and long-term abstinence (6 and 12 months post-intervention).

Candidate:

Computer Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Multimedia Engineer or similar.

MA in the computer science, UX development, sociology, socio-health field.

Access the AGAUR link to register: http://doctoratsindustrials.gencat.cat/ca/projects/index