Helping Hand

Design Challenge

To create a tailored digital solution that moves the needle in a positive direction for a social impact cause.

Problem Space

The Opioid Crisis is a large-scale national epidemic that has continued to ravage the United States and Canada for the past few decades. The problem not only persists, but is rapidly increasing in reach and severity. Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood has been especially hard hit. It is one of the largest heroin markets on the East Coast.

As Philadelphia residents, my team of three classmates and I wanted to chose an impactful project topic. We chose to tackle this ‘wicked problem’ for our Research & Design solution.

Research

Concept Mapping

Our first step was to take to the whiteboard for a brainstorming session, during which the team put together our existing knowledge of factors and stakeholders surrounding the opioid crisis. This helped us clarify the knowns and unknowns, and guide us towards formulating the questions we would need to answer.

Stakeholder Interviews

We then conducted card sorting interviews with two stakeholders; staff from a harm reduction facility, and a Peer Support Specialist.

Prevention Point

Prevention Point Philadelphia is a nonprofit organization located in Kensington, providing harm reduction services such as syringe exchange. It is the only syringe exchange program in Philadelphia and all of Eastern Pennsylvania.

Our team conducted a card sorting exercise with three staff members, helping us to facilitate the conversation regarding the organization’s challenges and pain points. We learned about their allies, their strengths and weaknesses, and where they need the most help.

Peer Support Specialist

Our team was also able to connect with Peer Support Specialist Jen, an individual who is in recovery and also working to help others recover. We conducted the same card sorting exercise with Jen as we did with Prevention Point. This allowed us to view the problem from yet another lens, giving us a different perspective and further insight into the front lines of the opioid epidemic.

Synthesis

The next step consisted of gathering all of our newly acquired knowledge digesting it.

Insights

In summary, we found that lack of awareness and stigma lead to the following key issues:

If the public knows about the problem, they don’t know how to help.
Stigma hinders addicts’ families from getting help for themselves.
Medical professionals continue to aggravate the problem by over-prescribing pain killers, contributing to the continued rise in addiction.

In order to recover, people need four key elements:

Home/Safety
Activity/Community
Health
Purpose

Personas

Based on our research, the team came up with several personas representing stakeholders involved with the crisis:

Active User
Users’ Immediate Family
Peer Recovery Specialist
Medical Professional
Member of the General Public

Design Solution

Drawing from our insights derived during the research phase, the team was then tasked to split up and choose a niche for which to design a solution individually. I chose to focus on skilled professionals and the aspect of community.

Problem: Skilled professionals who want to offer their time in advancement of the opioid solution need a means of allocating their skills to those in need.

Proposed Solution: The Helping Hand website is a platform where individuals can search for and connect with organizations who are in need of specific services that the individual can offer.

Ideation

Our research highlighted the fact that there aren’t currently too many ways for someone to offer their help towards the goal of ending the opioid crisis. My project focused on changing that by creating a platform where individuals can connect with organizations to offer skilled services where they are most needed. This platform would allow the user to choose from volunteering, part time and full time opportunities.