StressAutismMate (SAM)

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience high levels of stress, which negatively affects their quality of life. Reason for TNO and GGz Centraal (Emerhese) to develop an app under the name StressAutismMate (SAM), which helps people with ASD to gain more insight into stress moments. Together with 15 adults with ASD they developed and tested the SAM-prototype.

Thanks to making optimal use of new technology (algorithms and mobile application) SAM helps adults with ASD to increase their participation using a personalised approach. The positive impact of the use of the prototype indicates that it supports them in stress recognition and reduction. SAM increased their quality of life.

Costs of health care are rising. Especially mental health care is being challenged to reduce costs by developing methods that empower clients and make them more self-sufficient. SAM provides a better tailored care, which will reduce costs of treatment by GGZ institutions. The data in the application is not only valuable for the person with ASD, but also for the caregivers as well. Clients can now share a more detailed image of their stress experiences based on the data in the mobile application. This may help in providing better tailored care, which can lead to less treatments. The prototype of SAM has proven that; one of the 15 clients using the prototype of SAM was able to stop treatment (which had lasted for a very long time) and others indicated that they benefit greatly from SAM.

SAM was created thanks to a close collaboration with adults with ASD and their caregivers. The functionalities of the app have been drawn up together with them and all versions of the prototype have been evaluated by them, in order to develop the best possible prototype. Thanks to this collaboration, SAM consists of three functionalities: monitoring, feedback, and advice. These 3 functionalities help to better recognise stress and it supports them in reducing their stress, which will increases their quality of life.

The result of this project is a proven, effective prototype of SAM which has now been further developed, together with the target group, into a fully-fledged app that is now available in the Appstore.