Apps For Social Work

For Practitioners

Educational Apps

• SAMHSA’s Suicide Safe App
  • helps providers build skills around suicide prevention, based on the SAFE-T model
• the Savvy Social Worker
  • e-news format app that shares resources for social workers, especially around evidence-based practices
• Cochrane Library
  • iPad app that allows users to access resources about health care decision making

Practice Apps

• Autism Assessment
  • a self-assessment tool developed using DSM diagnostic criteria. This app was developed for caregivers as an educational resource, but could be useful for service users or practitioners
• DSM-5
  • app version of the DSM-5 for portability and ease of consultation
• What’s My M3
  • short, self-assessment tool for users to determine if they should seek support for a mental health issue
• Psychiatry in Primary Care
  • developed at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto through the Bell Let’s Talk initiative
  • a suite of products designed to support family doctors and front line practitioners in rapid assessment and treatment options for mental illness
  • adapted from an older paper tool

For Service Users

Intervention Tools Designed for Adults: Clinical Focus
Note: These tools are largely designed as companions to traditional, in-person clinical sessions. They are not designed to replace in-person services.

• DBT Diary Card and Skills Coach
  • helps those involved in DBT to engage with therapy outside of sessions, and build related skills
•  PTSD Coach and PTSD Coach Canada
  • helps people manage PTSD symptoms
• Mood Tools
  • an app designed to supplement treatment for depression
• CPT Coach
  • supports those involved in Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD
• Live OCD Free
  • an interactive app that guides supports users with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Stop Panic and Anixety Self-Help
  • a suite of resources and tools to help track and manage Panic Disorder and panic attacks
• Depression CBT Self Help Guide
  • designed to support people with CBT specifically for depression
• CBT-i Coach
  • a support for people using CBT strategies to cope with insomnia
• Intellicare bundle of apps
  • an NIH-funded suite of apps that target causes of depression and anxiety
  • 13 apps in all
• What’s Up
  • uses CBT and ACT methods to help users cope with a variety of mental health challenges, includes tracking features
  • gamification of grounding to help users manage stressful situations
• MediSafe
  • medication management tool
• Saying When
  • developed by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto
  • designed to support users seeking to stop or cut down on drinking alcohol

Intervention Tools Designed for Adults: General

• Aspire News
  • support for people involved in domestic violence, disguised as a news app
• SAM (Self-help Anxiety Management)
  • anxiety-management tool
• Panic Relief
  • guides users through a panic attack
• Best Sleep Hygiene
  • a three-stage program to help improve sleep habits and experiences

Tracking Apps

• WebMD Pain Coach
  • allows people to track data related to chronic pain
• Kindara
  • designed for fertility tracking, but customizable for tracking lots of different kinds of data
  • note: this app is the one of the least gendered tracking apps of its kind
• Clue
  • designed for cycle tracking, similar to Kindara in that it’s customizable for tracking lots of different kinds of data and is designed to be less gendered than many apps
• Optimism
  • mood-tracking app that can be used to develop wellness plans for mental health
• WorryWatch
  • anxiety journal, specifically targeting management of worries
•  MoodKit
  • general mood tracking and improvement tool
• Equanimity
  • meditation and meditation tracking app

Designed for Younger Users

• Triangle of Life
  • designed for people aged 8 to 12, gamifies CBT strategies
• Apps from Touch Autism
  • apps developed by a behaviour analyst to support people with autism, a wide range of apps that use social stories and audio visual tools to do things like calm down when anxious, or learn social skills
• Positive Penguins
  • two modes: provides a guided meditation for children, gamifies resilience-building skills for positive thinking and anxiety reduction
• Breathe, Think, Do
  • Sesame Street themed app that gamifies anxiety management
• Sesame Street apps
  • Sesame Street has developed a wide range of apps to support young people and parents dealing with everything from the incarceration of a family member, a move or divorce, or teaching young people with autism life skills
• MindShift
  • anxiety management app designed with teenaged users in mind
• Live OCD Free (kids’ version)
  • an interactive app that guides supports users with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Choiceworks
  • a tool designed to support users in learning how to manage routines and schedules, understand feelings, and improve waiting skills

Accessibility Apps

• TapTapSee
  • allows users to take a photo of an object, and the device will identify the object
  • intended to support visually impaired users in identifying objects
• Google Translate
  • translate between 103 different languages, including two-way instant speech translation in 32 languages
• P3 Mobile
  • a Video Relay Service app that allows deaf or hard of hearing people to make and receive calls with ASL interpretation using wifi or cellular data
• Roger Voice
  • captions voice phone calls in real time (similar to the US service CapTel)
• Be My Eyes
  • connects blind users to sighted users using video chat for instant support using a wifi or cellular data connection
• Avaz,  HelpTalk, JabTalk
  • smart versions of a traditional communication board (AAC)
• NotNav
  • GPS navigation app designed for blind people, by blind people

Relaxation/Anxiety-Reduction Apps

Note: These apps can be used by anyone, at any age.

• Fluid Monkey
  • sensory stimulation app that allows users to relax by interacting with colours and textures via touch screen
• Breathe to Relax
  • walks users through breathing exercises for stress management
• Anxiety Reliever (AR)
  • also a tracking tool, this app provides audio sessions to help the user relax and fall asleep
• Pacifica
  • based on CBT and meditation techniques, an app for stress management and relaxation
• Headspace
  • meditation app
• OMG. I Can Meditate!
  • mindfulness meditation app designed to improve sleep
• BellBio Interactive Breathing
  • for advanced belly-breathing techniques
• Relax Melodies
  • mix and match to create custom relaxation sounds to meditate or sleep to
• iSleep Easy
  • guided meditations for before bed
• Magic Window
  • a visual app designed to give the user’s brain a break from their day to day activities
• Deep Sleep
  • guided meditations to overcome insomnia and improve sleep

Other

• KnowBullying
  • an app designed by SAMHSA to support parents in conversations with their children about bullying
• Talk They Hear You
  • an app designed by SAMHSA to support parents in conversations with their children about underage drinking