Mapping Moods for Mental Health Awareness and other Crowdsourcing News

Canada's Partners for Mental Health, a national charitable organization aiming to create a new state of mind about mental health is running a 'Not Myself Today' campaign.

The goal is to have Canadians sign an online pledge of support for mental health at notmyselftoday.ca. But there's an interactive map to, I guess, draw more visitors:

On the website, Canadians can pin their mood on a virtual map of Canada, which is updated throughout the day.

On Thursday, 32.4 per cent of Saskatchewan residents were anxious, 24.3 per cent were hopeful, 18.9 per cent were OK, 13.5 per cent were depressed and 10.8 per cent were up.

You select your mood from a dozen or so options, then key in a ZIP Code or let the app find you.

- Leader Post

Students in India are updating OSM and that's getting into the paper.

Five youngsters, all third year students of Information Science, Nitte Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial Institute of Technology (NMAMIT), have added details to the online map of Mangalore (onOpenStreetMap).

Aadarsh, Chaitra, Cheryl, Shravan, and Sneha have added and corrected wrong locations of roads and city landmarks. They added details using GPS in Android phones and after modifying the data thus collected on a software called JOSM. The students divided themselves into two groups, the Kadri and Ladyhill groups. Both added details of city landmarks they knew. Aadarsh said he concentrated on correcting places that were wrongly marked. He added roads, residential areas, Bharath Mall, the KSRTC Bus Stand, and Bejai where he lived. He said that they divided themselves into two groups, with each adding details that they knew of. He said that since the idea was to add details of use to people, he marked medical, photocopy, soda shops, and grocery shops (such as Baliga Stores).

No, you don't read about that in the U.S. do you. Why not?

- The Hindu

Want to help crowdfund a location based game? How about one that uses real maps to build a fantasy world and is from the folks from Magic: The Gathering? The game, already in production, will be free on iOS, then Android. It's called Map Monsters. Goal funding is $40k and contributors will get their investments back as in game cash.

- The Verge

New Malaria Risk Maps and Data and other Health GIS News

In a study published in the Malaria Journal, a multinational team of researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, present the results of a two-year effort to assemble all available data worldwide on the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease. Using computer modelling and data on climate and human populations, they have revealed the complex landscape of malaria across the globe. The maps build on the first ever Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries published earlier this year.

Malaria continues to exert an huge burden of illness and death worldwide but, after decades of neglect, the war against the disease has entered an unprecedented era: it is high on the policy agenda, international funding is beginning to translate into real increases in populations protected by bed nets and other key interventions, and a growing body of evidence points towards important reductions in illness and death.

The maps have been made freely available, along with a wide range of other malaria resources via the launch of a new online portal at www.map.ox.ac.uk. The research was led by Dr Pete Gething from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. He says: "These new maps and our online portal are really aimed at everyone involved in the battle against the disease: from the major international organisations and funders, to other scientists, to those actually doing the disease control work on the ground."

- press release

PulsePoint, the mobile app that notifies those who are registered and CPR certified when help is needed is moving on from its home in San Ramon, CA to San Jose. 150 other agencies are interested. No word yet on if it's saved any lives yet.

- CIO

On Tuesday Massachusetts announced plans to shut down one of the state mental health hosptials in Taunton. The Massachussets Nurses Association quickly put out a press release calling it a travestry, in part, because of geography.

"Their plan makes no sense," Coughlin said. "Our system has been operating well over full capacity for years. We can't provide the care people need even with our facility open.  The other issue is geography.  We are now forcing patients and families to travel to Worcester, Tewksbury or out to Western Mass for their mental health care. It's a travesty."   

- press release