#34 - Combating Loneliness and Isolation in College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Danielle Ramo from HopeLab

Dr. Danielle Ramo, from HopeLab joined me this week to talk about the launch of the Nod app. Nod was built by HopeLab in collaboration with Grit Digital Health. Nod’s mission is to reduce loneliness in young people and to prevent adverse effects during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

Danielle is a clinical psychologist and the Senior Director of Research at HopeLab, which is a non-profit social innovation lab based in San Francisco creating behavior change tech to help teens and young adults live happier, healthier lives. Danielle has worked extensively on projects ranging from addressing loneliness among college students, teen vaping, mental health of young parents, young people with cancer, and a multitude of others. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Francisco, leading a research program at the intersection of substance use and digital mental health. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications and publications on drug use and mental health.

More on the Nod app: Download in Apple and Google Play stores, Nod one pager, Press Release on Launch of Nod

Connect with Danielle and her work: LinkedIn, Danielle’s website, Danielle’s recent article in Thrive Global on ways college students can deal with loneliness during the COVID pandemic

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Dr. Danielle Ramo joins us to talk about the latest amazing solution developed by HopeLab that helps college aged youth deal with loneliness. The app is called Nod and can be found in the Apple app store and in the Google Play store.
2. Danielle explains a bit about what HopeLab is. HopeLab, founded by Pam Omidyar, is a social innovation non-profit that creates behavior change tech to support adolescent health and wellbeing.  They have created everything from video games, to chat bots, and apps that support physical and mental health as well as behavior change among young people.
3. We talked about a recent CIGNA survey that found 79% of the GenZ population recently admitted to experiencing loneliness. We talked about why young people are struggling with isolation and loneliness.
4. HopeLab conducted a survey of 1,400 young people between ages 14-22 in 2018. The survey focused on the relationship between technology use, social media use, and experience with loneliness. They found that there was no relationship between extent of social media use, and experiences of loneliness, depression, anxiety, or other negative mental health issues. They did find that there was a difference in how young people used social media based on their mental health patterns.
5. What is Nod?

   HopeLab and Grit Digital Health worked together to co-create an app called Nod. Nod addresses loneliness among college-aged young people who can often be overwhelmed by the changes they experience in their environment and in how social connections are made when they get to college. College is a risky time in a young person’s l