Hackathought: A Hack for Mental Health and Well-Being

The GTA is home to over 300,000 post-secondary students, all of whom face varying degrees of stress and strain as they pursue career and learning objectives. Attending school in Canada’s largest city can be challenging because Toronto can be an expensive, lonely place, especially for students who arrive here from the rest of Canada and around the world.   

On November 7-9, we want to challenge students and hackers from across Ontario to build mHealth solutions that address the mental health and well-being needs of the post-secondary student population. We invite hackers from across Ontario, including students, to participate for a chance to win cash prizes.

Thought Spot engages students to identify healthy places they know about and helps them discover the wide variety of wellness options available both on and off campus. Some spots, such as Health Services at the University of Toronto, are already well-known — however the map uses a holistic definition of wellness, which includes a diverse set of resources including public parks, libraries and even yoga studios. The map already offers over 900 health and wellness spots across the GTA, from Ajax to Erin Mills.

Hackathought will challenge hackers to build mobile-centric technologies that consider the student experience with mental health and provides better access to Thought Spot resources while they are on the go.

We also want to encourage any hacker with an idea for a mental health innovation to participate. The Best Mental Health Innovation prize will be awarded to the hackers with the most creative and free-form solution.

The Thought Spot Project, initiated by the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health and lead by the University of Toronto through the Ministry of Training and Colleges and University’s Mental Health Innovation Fund, is supported by our partners Ryerson University, OCAD University and ConnexOntario.

Nov. 7, 2014 - Nov. 9, 2014

10 Dundas Street East, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B, Canada

$5,950