Seven Kiosks to Be Installed in Youth and Young Adult Facilities
Lowering the Barrier to Mental Health Counseling and Utilizing Data for Policy Development
Seocho-gu, Seoul (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) announced on the 6th that it will introduce the nation’s first ‘AI Mental Health Kiosk’ in youth and young adult facilities to support the mental health of adolescents and young adults, and will begin full-scale operation from the 14th of this month.
To this end, the district is conducting the ‘AI Mind Na, Neo (Sharing) Project’ in collaboration with related local organizations. The project aims to actively respond to the mental health issues of the younger generation, which have recently emerged as social problems such as academic and employment stress, interpersonal relationships, and depression, by monitoring the mental health of adolescents and young adults through artificial intelligence and proactively preventing issues, leading to customized policies.
A total of seven ‘AI Mental Health Kiosks’ will be operated to realize this. One kiosk will be installed each at youth facilities including Seocho Smart Youth Center, Bangbae Art Youth Center, Seocho-gu Youth Counseling Welfare Center, and young adult facilities such as Seocho Youth Center and Seocho-gu Single-Person Household Support Center. Two additional kiosks will be mobile and relocated as needed.
The kiosks offer services such as survey diagnostics, counseling for concerns, and psychological counseling. The generative AI provides specialized responses tailored to each user’s characteristics (age, personality, counseling content, etc.) through an interactive counseling program.
This AI solution enables fast and accurate psychological support, allowing adolescents and young adults to relieve various worries and stresses, thereby improving their mental health.
The biggest advantage is that it is conducted non-face-to-face. It lowers the threshold for mental counseling by overcoming others’ gaze and psychological burdens, helping many young people and adolescents to more easily check their own minds and find solutions in daily life.
The district plans to utilize the ‘AI Mental Health Kiosk’ for customized youth and young adult policy development as well. As various counseling records accumulate in the device, it is expected to acquire high-quality data that can identify and analyze the needs of adolescents and young adults. Using this data, the district will develop tailored policies for each target group and create a virtuous cycle structure that allows related organizations to plan and operate programs for youth and young adults.
Before the full-scale operation of the kiosks, a business agreement was signed on the 5th between the district and each youth and young adult facility. Five institutions, including Seocho Smart Youth Center and Seocho Youth Center where the kiosks will be installed, participated to share future device operation and linked projects, and pledged cooperation in supporting the mental health of young people and adolescents.
The ‘AI Mental Health Kiosk’ was introduced after being selected in last year’s ‘Testbed Seoul’ contest. It is part of a project that applies advanced technology from small and medium enterprises to the public sector for demonstration. The kiosk developed by NexV is expected to verify its technological capabilities and effectiveness in solving social problems through this operation and achieve business results.
Mayor Jeon Seong-su said, “I hope the AI Mental Health Kiosk will help the younger generation, who will lead the future, to reflect on their minds and find stability,” and added, “We will utilize this not only as a short-term counseling program but also for policy development to strengthen customized support for adolescents and young adults.”
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